CatholicNews ■ Sunday September 16, 2007
PEOPLE
IF YOU HAVE ever wondered who
ensures that the lecture rooms at the
Catholic Archdiocesan Education
Centre (CAEC) are ready for
lectures and conferences, or if
youʼve ever wondered about the
person who greets each person
who attends those talks and
conferences with a smile, itʼs Roy
Tan, Assistant Building Manager
of CAEC for the last seven years.
But Roy, whose hobbies
include car-racing and sketching,
has been reflecting on a return to
the secular world. “Godʼs been
leading me there,” he said. “Maybe
the little light that I have can shine
on others out there.” Roy left his
position on Aug 31. ■
By Joyce Gan
SINCE THEIR SCHOOLS days,
Roseanne Wee and her twin sister
Rosemary have been helping out at
churches and attending the novena
faithfully. They were baptized in
1996 at the Holy Family parish
and have since been using their
culinary skills to help others.
Before that, Roseanne was
looking after cancer patients at the
Little Sisters of the Poor Home at
Upper Thomson Road. Roseanne
was assigned to look after Louisa,
93. Her daily routine was to
sponge and feed Louisa and they
grew very close. When Louisa
died, Roseanne was so stricken
with grief that she decided that
she didnʼt want to look after
cancer patients anymore.
“I want to cook,” she decided,
and that was how Roseanne
joined Rosemary in the kitchen.
To be able to do this, Roseanne,
then working as a supervisor at
SingTel, changed to the 5pm to
midnight shift. By doing this she
could cook for about 200 persons
at the home from 9am to 4pm
daily. She did this from 1997 till
2002 when the Little Sisters of
the Poor left Singapore.
Roseanne has many fond
memories of the home. She
recalls an incident when the
By Joyce Gan
WENDY OOI, A Daugher of St.
Paul Sister and a Catholic News
writer, left the staff and Singapore
on Tue Aug 28 on the next lap of
her journey – one that takes her to
Los Angeles.
In the next few months,
Sister Wendy will be updating
herself in the media industry with
Paulist Productions, a Catholic
production house based in Los
Angeles that creates films and
television programmes with
the aim of “revealing Godʼs
presence in contemporary human
experience”, she says.
Next year she is scheduled to
be in Kenya.
“I will help in producing
catechetical videos, in the
apostolic formation of our novices
and I will have the opportunity to
carry out some mission work in
Sudan,” Wendy shares.
Wendy made her final
profession on Mar 25, 2003.
Prior to that, she was a television
producer cum broadcast journalist
with then Singapore Broadcasting
Corporation (SBC), todayʼs
MediaCorp.
She shares that she had “never
residents requested for a feast one
Chinese New Year.
“But there were no volunteers
as it was Chinese New Year. I
wondered what to do before I
went to the chapel to pray,” she
recalls. “And then, 16 students
showed up to volunteer their
help. Although they didnʼt know
how to cook, they helped prepare
such a good dinner,” Roseanne
said with a laugh, “though they
did mess up the kitchen”.
Roseanne then used her
culinary skills at Tan Tock
Seng Hospitalʼs Hospice Care
Association (HCA) for a year.
“I was the first to organize
birthday parties for them,”
she beamed as she displayed
photographs of some of those
parties. “The patients were
touched and cried because they
said that their children didnʼt
really celebrate for them.”
“Whenever they have an urge
to eat some food, I will quickly
buy it and prepare it for them…
sometimes just a day before they
die,” she said.
Part of the money, some $400
a month to buy the food, were
donated by her colleagues at
SingTel.
Roseanne left HCA because
her blood pressure shot up that
year from the stress of having
wanted to be a Sister but when
the Lord calls and youʼre open to
do his will, you canʼt escape!”
Her first encounter with the
Daughters of St. Paul was through
a small vocation advertisement in
the Catholic Digest.
“I was impressed that such a
ʻmodernʼ congregation existed
and I was attracted by their
mission to use the media to
evangelize because that was my
desire too,” she recalls.
With that, she visited the
Daughters of St. Paul in Malaysia
and the Philippines to experience
their life of prayer and mission
– all the while, a “reluctant
vocation”, she admits.
“I didnʼt think I was ʻholyʼ
enough but the Lord calls sinners
and saints alike so after a silent
retreat, I decided to surrender
myself to his will, believing that
only in so doing would I obtain
inner peace and true joy,” she says.
Since then, Wendyʼs mission as
a Daughter of St. Paul was to carry
out various forms of apostolate
that has to do with “using the
media at the service of Godʼs
Word and todayʼs culture to spread
the message of Godʼs love”.
After her profession of
perpetual vows in 2003, Archbishop
Nicholas Chia had requested for
her to contribute to CatholicNews.
“Since this is very much in
line with our apostolate, we were
to cook twice a week at her Toa
Payoh home, then delivering the
food in a taxi, and then washing
the many pots and pans at night
after her work at Singtel.
“After the hospice, it felt like
God was calling me to do more,”
Roseanne said. An Indonesian
friend asked her to cook at a
Carmeliteʼs religious and retreat
house in Tambunan, Sabah. This
place was located in a jungle, on
Sabahʼs second highest mountain.
“I went to take a look… and
happy to oblige and grateful for
the opportunity to serve our local
church in a direct way.”
She adds, “Whatʼs really
interesting is that our very first
mission as Daughters of St. Paul
was to set up a diocesan
newspaper in Susa, Italy, the next
diocese to Alba where our Sisters
were founded.”
Of all the many articles that
Wendy has written, four come to
mind when asked what was most
memorable about her work with
straightaway I started!” she
laughed. Roseanne had retired
from the SingTel job by then and
she cooked for the Carmelites
from January to November 2005,
spending two months there, then
return to Singapore for two months,
before heading back to Sabah.
There were only 22 Carmelites
there on ordinary days, but when
there were retreats, she had to
cook for about 1,000 people.
Roseanne was then introduced
by an Anglican friend to a hostel
for children in Kota Marudu,
Sabah. It was a bare place set
up by two Assisi nuns with their
Mother Superior and a priest who
visits about three times a week.
The nuns would go into
the jungle to evangelize to the
Kadazan-Duson natives whose
custom was to marry at about age
11 and give birth to as many as
14 children. They had minimal
facilities. So they entrusted the
children to the nuns, who brought
them back to the hostel.
Roseanne found herself
looking after the children (photo),
caring for them and telling them
about Jesus Christ, in addition to
cooking for them.
She built a proper bathroom at
the hostel for them from a $4,000
donation from a friend.
Sister Theresa Chai, a Good
Shepherd Sister from Sabah, then
11
Catholic News. One was a feature
article on the environment – “I was
thankful for the opportunity to
enlighten our readers on creation
spirituality and how we can be
kinder to the planet and the
environment”; the series on
religious life – “It was edifying
to see the beauty of each
congregationʼs charism and
how each is contributing to the
building up of the one body in
Christ.”; the series on religions
– “Iʼm ever more convinced that
no religion can say they have
exclusive claim to the Truth or
salvation” and of course, her
interview with Olivia Newton-John.
An Olivia Newton-John
admirer for the last 30 years,
Wendy says the interview was a
“dream come true”.
“It was most satisfying to hear
a CatholicNews reader comment
after he had read the article, ʻOlivia
is more Catholic than I am!ʼ”
For now, Sister Wendy Ooiʼs
journey has taken her away from
Singapore.
To this, she says, “Itʼs never
easy when you have set up roots
and then have to leave. It wasnʼt
easy to leave the ministries I was
involved with, friends and family
but God always writes straight in
crooked lines so I see his loving
hand in my new assignment and
trust that he will always be with
me, come what may.” ■
approached Roseanne for help.
She readily agreed.
“My duty is to teach about
50 expecting mothers how to
cook, bake, cut hair and other
life skills,” she said. “We will do
craftwork and hold food fairs.
The money earned will help to
defray costs for the Sisters and to
pay for the necessities for these
mothers.”
If all goes well, Roseanne will
be headed there in November.
“Iʼm trying to go early
because theyʼre expectant
mothers, mostly unmarried, so I
have to teach them (certain life
skills) before they give birth and
have to return to their kampong,”
Roseanne confided.
For the moment, she is
consolidating materials for
the mothers to work on – such
as creating Bible carriers and
making rosaries – as well as
preparing to help them read the
Bible.
Roseanne speaks about
the joy she has found in doing
what she does: “I feel so happy
especially when I see people eat.
I am so touched because God has
given me strength to cook. Iʼve
been approached for business
many times but I always turn
these down. I just want to do
Godʼs work.”
Roseanneʼs sister Rosemary
is in Singapore, still working, and
helping Roseanne with funds to
help people. ■