SINGAPORE (THE NEW PAPER) - Hundreds of former students and colleagues gathered at the wake of a Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School teacher over the weekend.

Ms Wong Gim Leng, 63, died suddenly after collapsing while shopping at the Nex mall on Dec 14.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force told The New Paper on Sunday it dispatched an ambulance at 8.30pm and took Ms Wong to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Doctors there told her sisters - Ms Wong Yim Peng, 59, and Ms Wong Yim Fong, 66 - that by the time she was at the hospital, she had already suffered a brain haemorrhage and was reliant on life support.

Ms Wong, who was single and lived alone, died on Thursday after her four siblings made a joint decision to take her off life support.

LAST RESPECTS

On Friday, about 200 people - former students, colleagues and friends - gathered to pay their last respects at Block 4, Lorong Lew Lian.

"There were so many students who came to bid farewell," said Ms Yim Peng, a teacher based in Malacca.

"Gim Leng had worked at Paya Lebar Methodist since the late 70s and she taught many generations of girls."

Ms Yim Fong added: "There was a mother-and-daughter pair who gave a eulogy earlier. Both of them had Gim Leng as their form teacher during their time at the school."

Ms Wong taught mathematics, including additional mathematics.

When TNPS visited the wake yesterday, a group of students, who declined to be named, spoke fondly of their former teacher.

"She would counsel us until kingdom come if she had to, just to make sure we wouldn't give up on ourselves," said a 26-year-old.

Ms Yim Peng said: "Even when she was ill and needed to rest, she would insist on working. Whenever she called me, she would spend lots of time talking about her students.

"I never knew the difference one person could make until now. And it is clear that they loved her as much as she did them.

"After all, they were her life."

The funeral was held at 4.30pm today at Mandai Crematorium Service Hall 3.