Thursday March 15, 2012
Reunited after 40 years
By LIM WEY WEN [email protected]
KUALA LUMPUR: Former domestic helper Lim Lian Swee and Australian retiree Pamela O'Keefe had no trouble recognising each other even after being apart for 40 years. When they did, there were tears of joy.
“I did not have a current picture of (O'Keefe), but when she walked into the hotel lobby, I knew it was her,” said an overjoyed Lim. “I'm so happy I'm lost for words,” said the 55-year-old, who never stopped waiting for the day when she would be reunited with her former employer.
Joyful reunion Lim Lian Swee (centre) hugging Kathleen O’Keefe as the latter’s mother Pamela looks on. Lim, 55, and Pamela, 71, have not seen each other for 40 years and were finally reunited in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday. - SAMUEL ONG / The Star
Before approaching The Star in January, O'Keefe had written to several Malaysian newspapers, the Malaysian High Commission in Canberra, and even the Red Cross for help to locate Lim. “I knew that one day I would find her and in January, I felt I had to try again,” said O'Keefe, whose husband was attached with the Australian Trade Commission in Kuala Lumpur from 1970 to 1972.
After The Star ran an article on O'Keefe's attempts to track down Lim on Jan 15, both of them reconnected via e-mail within a week. “Everything happened so fast!” said O'Keefe, who then decided to meet Lim and her family here this month.
Flashback: Lim helping out in the kitchen when she was working for O’Keefe in Kuala Lumpur in the 70s.
After arriving from Queensland yesterday with her Malaysian-born daughter Kathleen, O'Keefe, 71, showed no signs of fatigue as she chatted with Lim. Lim had learnt how to send e-mails to O'Keefe after her children, Diana and Daniel, set up an account for her in January. “I've avoided computers all my life. But now I know how to perform simple tasks with it,” said Lim with a grin.
As both O'Keefe and Lim browsed through black-and-white photos of them in the 1970s, fond memories of family vacations, favourite food and familiar people came back. Lim, her husband Thomas Lee, her elder sister Lim Ngan Yap, and her two children will be joining the O'Keefes at the hotel for the next two days, and they will be taking them for a trip down memory lane.
“We do not have any other plans because the purpose of this trip is to meet Lim,” said O'Keefe. For Lim, this reunion is a second miracle after she was first reunited with her younger sister 10 years ago through a similar newspaper article.
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