Dia mendapat wasiat itu daripada majikannya yang juga seorang wanita, Dr. Quek Kai Miew yang meninggal dunia pada tahun lalu semasa berusia 66 tahun.Kekayaan segera itu meliputi wang tunai dan sebuah pangsapuri mewah berhampiran pusat beli-belah Orchard Road.
SINGAPURA - Seorang amah Filipina yang setia berkhidmat selama lebih 20 tahun menjadi jutawan segera kerana majikannya memberikannya sebanyak S$6 juta (RM14 juta) menerusi wasiat, lapor sebuah akhbar semalam.
"Sama ada memiliki atau tidak wang itu, saya merupakan amah yang paling bertuah di Singapura," katanya yang dikenali dengan nama Christine.
Berusia 47 tahun dan masih belum berkahwin, dia enggan mendedahkan identiti dirinya dan mahu dikenali sebagai Christine kerana bimbangkan keselamatannya di Filipina yang merupakan negara yang sering menjadi lokasi penculikan untuk mendapatkan wang tebusan.
Dia sangat rapat dengan majikannya.
Christine yang kini sedang memohon menjadi penduduk tetap Singapura menyatakan bahawa kekayaan itu tidak akan dapat mengubah gaya hidupnya.
Amah tersebut turut menjaga ibu doktor itu dan dia diberitahu akan menjadi seorang penerima wasiat yang sedang disediakan oleh majikannya pada 2008.
"Tidak ada rahsia di antara kami. Saya tidak terkejut apabila diberitahu berapa banyak yang saya akan perolehi" katanya.
Christine berasa kecewa setahun lalu apabila majikannya meninggal dunia.
"Kematian itu amat mengecewakan saya kerana tempoh saya bersama dengan doktor itu lebih lama daripada saya bersama ibu saya," tambahnya.
"Saya akan berasa sedih setiap kali saya teringatkan dia (majikannya)," kata amah tersebut. - AFP
Maid gets S$6M –‘Straits Times’
A FILIPINO maid who had served a Singaporean doctor until her death last year has inherited a whopping $4 million (S$6 million), including the apartment in an upscale part of town, where the late doctor lived for many years.
Dubbed “the 6-M maid” by The Straits Times, which had an exclusive story on the lucky Filipina, the unnamed woman, described as “petite” with short cropped hair, has insisted nothing in her life has changed despite the fortune she inherited for her devotion to her employer, a general practitioner described as a “charitable” boss in her office.
Asked by The Straits Times whether she considered herself fortunate, she replied: “I am, but I cannot express what to say,” and then added: “I am the luckiest maid in Singapore, with or without the money.”
It is apparently such simplicity of ways and detachment from material things that has endeared the Filipino woman to Dr. Quek Kai Miew, whose ailing mother she also looked after, besides the usual household chores. The old woman died three years after the maid came to Singapore in 1986.
Despite living in the apartment in Leonie Hill, where the late doctor lived, the 47-year-old former maid, according to The Straits Times article, “insists that little in her life has changed.”
“I do not really think much about the money I got. I just live my life as I did before, and not as a rich person,” the eighth child in a family of nine told The Straits Times in an exclusive interview.
She is unmarried, at 47, and recently brought her own mother and a relative to Singapore for a few months’ visit.
Christine (the name that The Straits Times bestowed on her to keep her identity secret) applied for permanent residency in Singapore because, said the story, “this is where she spent more than 20 years working for Dr. Quek.”
At some point, the article traced the remarkable devotion of the Filipina to her Singaporean employer to the endearing ways of Dr. Quek. “The late doctor probably had a lot to do with Singapore feeling like home. Fresh off the boat from the Philippines...she said she was treated by Dr. Quek—herself unmarried—like a daughter.”
In the interview, she referred to her late employer interchangeably as “Dr. Quek”, “madam” and “mother” and “the doctor always listened to her personal problems,” said the article, quoting Christine.
When the doctor’s ailment forced her to go around in a wheelchair, Christine pushed her in one when they had to go out for, say, medical checkups.
When Dr. Quek died at age 66 on July 19 last year of heart failure, relatives and her maid were with her.
With the doctor gone, Christine could not bear living in the apartment, and moved in with Dr. Quek’s nephew when she got permission to stay in Singapore until her work permit expired.
Despite living in the apartment in Leonie Hill, where the late doctor lived, the 47-year-old former maid, according to The Straits Times article, “insists that little in her life has changed.”
“I do not really think much about the money I got. I just live my life as I did before, and not as a rich person,” the eighth child in a family of nine told The Straits Times in an exclusive interview.
She is unmarried, at 47, and recently brought her own mother and a relative to Singapore for a few months’ visit.
Christine (the name that The Straits Times bestowed on her to keep her identity secret) applied for permanent residency in Singapore because, said the story, “this is where she spent more than 20 years working for Dr. Quek.”
At some point, the article traced the remarkable devotion of the Filipina to her Singaporean employer to the endearing ways of Dr. Quek. “The late doctor probably had a lot to do with Singapore feeling like home. Fresh off the boat from the Philippines...she said she was treated by Dr. Quek—herself unmarried—like a daughter.”
In the interview, she referred to her late employer interchangeably as “Dr. Quek”, “madam” and “mother” and “the doctor always listened to her personal problems,” said the article, quoting Christine.
When the doctor’s ailment forced her to go around in a wheelchair, Christine pushed her in one when they had to go out for, say, medical checkups.
When Dr. Quek died at age 66 on July 19 last year of heart failure, relatives and her maid were with her.
With the doctor gone, Christine could not bear living in the apartment, and moved in with Dr. Quek’s nephew when she got permission to stay in Singapore until her work permit expired.