News

Just an hour before the send-off for Ng Teak Boon was due to take place, it started raining heavily. The rain didn’t deter a small group of about 15 people — most of them charity volunteers — from showing up for the late Mr Ng, who was a famous longtime fixture outside Sim Lim Tower with his old-school ice cream cart. Uncle Boon, as he was affectionately known, died last week (Jun 21). He was 92. No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg . Worked till his 90s The sprightly Uncle Boon lived alone in a one-room rental flat in Geylang Bahru. Around three months before his passing, he stopped working as he started feeling very weak. He was looked after by a group of charity volunteers and chicken rice hawker Chia Siew Tin, 65, who befriended Uncle Boon as he frequented her stall at Jalan Berseh Food Centre. “He always came to my hawker centre. We became friends after I saw him alone looking pitiful, and I took care of him,” she tells 8days.sg . Uncle Boon suffered from low blood pressure, and in early June, he fainted while shopping at a pasar malam. “He was sent to the hospital in an ambulance, and passed away a few days later. He was already very old,” says Siew Tin, who took care of Uncle Boon’s meals and gave him a daily allowance for eight years. She declined to share more details about Uncle Boon’s family situation. 1 1 A group of volunteers from charity organisation Helping Joy helped improve Uncle Boon’s living conditions. He was previously sleeping on the hard floor in his rental flat, and was later given a mattress, pillow and blanket. The Samaritans also cleaned his bug-infested home, as his housing situation had fallen into disarray after his housemate left their shared flat. One of the volunteers was Melvin Chew, 46, the second-gen hawker-owner of Chinatown stall Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck & Kway Chap. He recalls bumping into Uncle Boon at Jalan Berseh Food Centre just two weeks before the elderly man’s passing. “He was walking very fast towards Auntie Chia’s chicken rice stall. I still ‘disturbed’ him by asking him why he was walking so fast,” recounts Melvin. “Later the charity group told me that Uncle had fainted and was hospitalised. The hospital got in touch with Auntie Chia because Uncle carried her name card in his wallet in case of emergencies. They were all afraid of him falling down.” Uncle Boon was cremated on Jun 22 without a wake, and a simple Buddhist prayer ceremony was arranged for today (Jun 29) at the Garden of Peace in Choa Chu Kang. Members of the public can scatter their loved ones’ cremated ashes at the NEA-approved garden grounds after registration. 1 2 The ice cream uncle’s ashes were contained in a cardboard cylinder, and scattered over a garden patch by his nephew. He shares with 8days.sg: “I was already in touch with [chicken rice hawker] Auntie Chia and the volunteers on what to do should [my uncle] Ah Boon pass away.” 2 2 As he scattered the ashes, Uncle Boon’s nephew could be heard calling out in Hokkien: “Have a good journey Ah Boon!” The group gathered and were handed watering cans to sprinkle water over the ash-covered garden bed. In a 2017  interview with CNA , Uncle Boon recounted a cheeky conversation he had with Auntie Chia, in which he reckoned that he could probably live to a ripe old age of 106 years old. “She said, ‘You will live longer than Lee Kuan Yew’. I said I will live longer than Lee Kuan Yew,” he chortled. When asked if he would continue selling ice cream till he was 106, Uncle Boon smiled and replied: “Yes, I will sell ice cream until I die. Then I stop.” Photos and video: Yip Jieying No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg . 8days.sg is now on #tiktok! Follow us on www.tiktok.com/@8dayseat