Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

very busy cooking twelve to fourteen courses for her dinners. Then Mummy said
something rather surprising. She asked me if I had forgiven Eleanor. I was a bit shocked
for a moment; in all these years, Mummy had never brought it up. I told her that I had
forgiven my wife a very long time ago. Mummy seemed happy about this. She looked at
me for a long time and said, “You are just like your father after all.” I told her I was going
to meet up with a few of my ACS old boys for drinks at the Men’s Bar in the Cricket Club,
but I would be back before our dinner guests arrived. As I left her bedroom, there was a
part of me that sensed she didn’t want me to leave. I wondered for a moment if I should
cancel the meet-up and stay by her bedside, but then I thought, Philip, you’re being
ridiculous. You’ll be back in two hours.
LEE AH LING
Head Housekeeper
At around 4:30 p.m., I went upstairs to give Su Yi a final update on tonight’s menu for the
party. When I went into the bedroom, Catherine was sitting by her bedside and I noticed
that someone had opened all the windows and curtains. Su Yi usually prefers the curtains
drawn in the afternoons, to protect her antique furniture from the setting sun, so I began
to close them. “Leave them,” Catherine said. I looked over at her and began to ask why,
and that’s when I realized that Su Yi was gone. You could just see that her spirit had left
her body. I was so shocked, I panicked at first and asked, “Where are the doctors? Why
didn’t the alarms go off?” “They did. The doctors came in and I sent them all away,”
Catherine said in an unnaturally calm voice. “I wanted to be alone with my mother one
last time.”
PROFESSOR FRANCIS OON, MBBS, MRCP (U.K.), MMED (INT MED), FRCP
(LONDON), FAMS, FRCP (EDIN), FACC (USA)
Personal Cardiologist
I had been entertaining Debra Aronson, the publisher of Poseidon Books, at home in my
wine cellar when the call came. You see, I collect contemporary Chinese art, and Poseidon
has been trying to woo me into doing a coffee-table book on my collection. When my
associate Dr. Chia called with the urgent news from Tyersall Park, I immediately said, “Do
not resuscitate.” I knew it would be hopeless. There’s been so much scarring to her heart,
it would be pointless to try and revive her. It’s her time to go. None of this came as a
surprise to me. In fact, after looking at her stats the previous morning during that
fabulous crepe breakfast, I was surprised that she was even able to get out of bed. Her
heart rate, her blood pressure, her ejection fraction—everything was off the charts. But
you know, I’ve seen this happen time and again. In the day or two before a patient passes,
they can experience a sudden spurt of energy. The body rallies, as if it knows that this will
be the last hurrah. The minute I saw Su Yi appear at the breakfast table, I surmised that