She was my teacher: a tribute to Mrs Ann Chia

This was my primary school teacher, Mrs Ann Chia (with her husband).

Today, I got a Facebook private message written to me from my junior Xiaowen from JJC (who happened to be in my CCA and Primary school). She said she wanted my number. Told me to sms her.

Here's what she replied to my sms:

"Hmm, ytd I msged mrs chia [our fond primary school teacher] to wish her teachers' day, den some1 replied to say dat she has passed away 3 months ago, den he/she asked if i want to go to her church to look at mrs chia's photos.. Hmm, so I tot of asking if u wanna go."

Mrs Ann Chia. If there is a single school teacher who made the largest change in my life, it's her. And she transformed many lives. Many, many, many.

When I was 12 years old, she was around 50 years old. She was formidable, scary, stern. Seniors who were taught by her always say, "You'll love her only when you leave the school." That's most true. We later realised she scolds because she cares. And I visited her once, in Sec 1. In Sec 2, I found out she had quit to become a pastor in a church.

After that sms, I googled her name. "Ann Chia" church Singapore. I found that she indeed is a pastor at Emmanuel Christian Church, on Facebook. The weekly sermon stopped in March. There weren't any photographs of hers on that page. After many tries, I found her husband's page, and when I saw his profile picture, I slipped into a daze for a while.

Of course you can't fully understand, but she meant a lot to me because she was my rags to riches catalyst. I went to secondary school and was 6th in whole level in Sec One, 12th in whole level in Sec Two. From that class, one went to Normal Acad, and rose to Express in Sec Two. From that class, many went to Raffles, Hwa Chong, and River Valley. My class was a glorious batch, and then the school merged with Jurong Primary. It no longer exists. She has trained all of us to be disciplined, to work, to value our family and friends, and that there's always hope in life (she shares of christian miracles of her life with us).

Even my parents know, she was perhaps the most significant teacher of my life. I owe a lot of my success to her. She was also the reason I hit off well with Xiaowen.

Life's so fragile, I'm a little scared to lose my loved ones.