All About Her
Our grandmum, Ngo Fung Sau, was born in Hoi-ping, Guangdong Province, China in 1911. In her 40s she left China for Hong Kong with her son in the spring of 1956.
After settling in Hong Kong, she worked as a domestic helper for about a decade in Sham Shui Po on Kowloon Peninsula and the Mid-level on Hong Kong Island respectively. Later, in the 70s, she spent another decade as a part-time factory worker, making plastic umbrella covers at home. We still remember quite clearly the era of helping her make those covers, taking them to the factory, and sharing the money she earned. She quitted it in the late 80s.
As our parents had to work outside, she, relatively speaking, spent more time with us and looked after our daily living during our formative years.
She did not have many interests. What she liked most was playing mah-jong. Almost every fortnight, she played mah-jong with her friends. In fact, she was our mah-jong mentor. All of us were taught by her the rules of playing mah-jong when we were in primary schools.
For the past two years, her great-granddaughter, Sophie Hau Ching, had brought her a lot of pleasure and contentment. She always laughed while playing with Sophie, and liked to buy Yakult and raisin buns for her. The day before she passed away, we had dinner together and Sophie was playing ball and blocks with her very happily.
She was illiterate but full of wisdom. She could neither read nor write; however, her teaching has long been influencing us.
We believe that she had known she was going to leave us, as she put her saved money and ornaments under the pillow. Besides, we later knew from the maid that she went to see the doctor three days before she left us. It is a pity she had not told us about these.
Her sudden departure is a great grief to us indeed.
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Time Line
March 2 Saturday
4:40pm Suffocated and fell down on the kitchen floor suddenly
4:45pm Police arrived
5:00pm Ambulance nurses arrived
5:10pm Arrived at Queen Mary Hospital
5:30pm Certified dead
5:45pm Touching her, taking off her ring and bracelets
March 3 Sunday
Arranging her funeral
March 4 Monday
8:45am Arrived at Victoria Mortuary in Kennedy Town
10:15am The Coroner requested post mortem examination.
10:30am Seeing grandmum's body at the mortuary
March 7 Thursday
6:00-10:00pm Funeral service at Hong Kong Funeral Home in North Point
March 8 Friday
8:00am Funeral service at Hong Kong Funeral Home
9:30am Cremation at crematorium at Cape Collinson in Chai Wan
March 28 Thursday
3:00pm Deposition of grandmum's ashes in niche no.8003, 2/F, block 6 (Tsui Yuen Hall) at Cape Collinson
Causes of Death
The certified copy of an entry in the register of deaths was received on March 21, 2002. The quotations under each cause are its meanings:
1. Coronary thrombosis:
a. "A cause of sudden death."
b. "The heart is surrounded by three major coronary arteries that supply it with blood and oxygen. If a blood clot develops in one of these arteries, the blood supply to that area of the heart muscle will stop. This is known as a coronary thrombosis, a myocardial infarction or heart attack. Most commonly a coronary thrombosis will cause severe chest pains behind the sternum (breast bone), often radiating towards the left arm. The area of muscle to which there is insufficient supply stops working properly if the blood clot is not dissolved quickly, eg with thrombosis dissolving (thrombolytic) medication."
c. "Coronary thrombosis, which usually takes place in the coronary arteries, frequently develops at the site of an atherosclerotic plaque rupture. Most people in the developed world have atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) in some parts of their body, without ever noticing it. Atherosclerosis may start around the age of 20 and develops gradually with increasing age. Some people have symptoms of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries which shows up as angina (pains in the chest). Conversely, plaque rupture leading to a coronary thrombosis often occurs in someone with no previous history of angina. It is the lining of the artery supplying the heart muscle that forms an atherosclerotic plaque. This diseased area of the coronary artery can, if it ruptures, develop a blood clot on it, comprising blood clotting proteins, platelets and red blood cells. This formation has the potential to seal off the blood supply."
d. "Recent evidence has shown that stress - whether one interprets this as free-floating anxiety, excitement strong emotions, or as mental or physical exhaustion - over-stimulates nerves which control coronary arteries, causing them to go into spasm, slowing blood flow, and creating conditions in which a blood clot is likely to form and cut off blood flow."
2. Ruptured myocardial infarction:
"Death of a section of heart muscle when its blood supply is cut off, usually by a blood clot in a coronary artery narrowed by arteriosclerosis. Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, high cholesterol, cigarette smoking, and coronary heart disease increase the risk. Symptoms include severe chest pain, often radiating to the left arm, and shortness of breath. Up to 20% of victims die before reaching the hospital."
3. Haemopericardium:
"Haemopericardium (blood may collect in the pericardial sac) can occur as a terminal event following a rupture of the myocardium after acute myocardial infarction."
Heart attack animation
Infarction
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