Breaking his silence yesterday afternoon at her wake at Teresa Ville, her husband, Mr Michael Puhaindran, 37, shared her last words with the media at his first press interview.

Composed, the corporate counsel recounted their conversation.

“In a steady voice she was talking to me, and, reacting to her, I was trying to remain calm as well. Only in her very last sentence did she say, “Please tell them to hurry up.”

“That was when I couldn’t really take it. I told her I loved her so very much, and she said the same thing. Those were the last words,” he said, voice wavering and eyes welling up.

That was their fourth, and last, telephone conversation in seven hours, at about 6am on Thursday.

Agonising hours later, at about 9.35pm, he would identify her body, feet clad in bedroom slippers, on the 19th floor of Mumbai’s Oberoi Trident Hotel.

Accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), he was led up the steps of the pitch-black hotel to where Ms Lo’s body lay.

“I was able to touch her cheek,” he said. “She still looked very beautiful.”

Ms Lo, a shipping-finance associate with offshore firm Stephenson Harwood, had flown to India’s financial capital on Wednesday morning (Indian time) to deliver a talk.

She first called him at about midnight, when she heard gunshots fired outside her hotel. She had just returned to the Oberoi after drinks with clients.

About 15 minutes later, she said she was in a stairwell on the 10th floor, with security and hotel staff, waiting for the police.

The couple did not manage to speak to each other again until after 5am. She called to say that she was being held at gunpoint by “only five terrorists” armed with handguns and grenades.

That was when Mr Puhaindran called MFA for assistance. His wife, a self-confessed “crackberry addict” – chuckling as he described her so – had sent an e-mail message via BlackBerry to three of her close friends at 6.36am, telling them of the hostage situation.

He said: “She ended off by saying, ‘If I don’t make it out of here, I love you all’.”

Ms Lo was shot in the head and abdomen.

Fighting back sobs, Mr Puhaindran said he took solace in “how she was strong, right up to the point she was killed.”

One group, ‘In Memoriam: Ms Lo Hwei Yen’, has more than 3,000 members.

Software engineer Christopher Yeo, 46, who set up a 154-member strong Facebook group titled ‘Lo Hwei Yen – first Singaporean victim to international terrorism’, told The New Paper: ‘I used to travel to Bombay quite often, and stayed at the Oberoi. It could have been me.

‘I am glad that many people have come forward to offer their words of comfort. It’s nice to know that Singaporeans are not just looking after themselves, but are open and supportive to Ms Lo’s family, even if they do not know them.’

Thousands of Singaporeans, many of whom do not know Ms Lo or her family members, have written condolence messages to them through these Facebook groups.

One of them, Mr Daniel Tan, wrote: ‘The first time I read about her plight was literally a heart-sinking moment, even though I didn’t really follow the Mumbai bombing news that closely. I hope she’s now in a better place.’

Another, Mr Lim Teck Yong, wrote: ‘It is very sad that a young promising life was taken in such a manner. I pray that comfort and healing will come upon the family of the late Ms Lo Hwei Yen.

‘No words we say or post will make any difference, but I want the family to know that there are people out there who grieve with them in times like this…’

Others, like Mr Timothy Pang, posted links to pictorial tributes containing her personal photographs, and messages from Singaporeans.

Friends of Ms Lo have also posted messages to spread details of the wake, such as the dress code.

Ms Daphne Kuah wrote: ‘Please be dressed in BLACK GLAMOUR, the way she will like.

‘This is the dress code aligned with family members. Appreciate if all guests can come as per dress code. Yen loves glamour. She is the glamour of every party.

In death, Ms Lo Hwei Yen has reflected the way she lived her life – unique, unconventional and full of zest.

Red is not usually a colour associated with a wake. But in this case it was special.

It was the red dress the 28-year-old wore on one of the happiest days of her life – during her Bali wedding to Mr Michael Puhaindran, 37.

‘The slideshow, which was done by one of my brother-in-law’s friends, showed them at the best time of their lives.

‘It is the best way to remember my sister.’

Pictures of Ms Lo and Mr Puhaindran on their holidays, which were projected onto a screen to the left of Ms Lo’s coffin, highlighted the magnitude of his loss as he stood alone beside her coffin.

For most of the evening, Mr Puhaindran was stoic. He had accompanied his wife’s body back from Mumbai yesterday morning.

But he broke down as friends and family members hugged him, as they stepped forward to pay their last respects at the Lo family’s condominium at Lower Delta Road.

‘In time, he will be more willing to explain what happened, and tell you how great life was with my sister.’

Ms Lo, a lawyer with Stephenson Harwood, was taken hostage and killed at The Oberoi Trident during a terrorist attack which began last Wednesday evening.

Loud sobs could be heard from outside the tentage as Ms Lo’s mother-in-law, Mrs Puhaindran, had to be led away, supported by her husband and other relatives, after she saw Ms Lo’s body for the first time since she was brought home.

The family’s grief was private, with about 50 friends and family members coming to pay their respects by 8pm yesterday.

Strangers, too, felt compelled to pay their respects. Mrs Shirley Choo, 48, took along her son, 9-year-old Ryan. They live in the same condominium as the Lo family.

Hwei Shan said that it was ‘reassuring’ that the colleagues who had visited the family had given positive feedback on Ms Lo’s speech.

When asked about her sister’s achievements, Hwei Shan said: ‘She was loved by everyone; she had many friends. It is amazing what she has done.’

She added that her family is grateful for the public’s support.

‘Even though such a tragic event has happened, Singaporeans are able to express their condolences. It is really remarkable.’

We have long passed the time for meaningless calls to action which fall on deaf ears. A concerted and global movement must start to root out the nefarious elements in our societies who use their pulpits to embed amoral and murderous thoughts into wayward and impressionable youth. The abject failure of religious, political and commercial leaders to inculcate a sense of moral responsibility in their societies leads to the horrific outcomes we have been privy to over the past several days and which, unfortunately for us now who call Singapore home, has resulted in the untimely death of a young woman from within our own borders. The ramifications of this untimely passing are sure to be felt for years to come, but I remain confident that we as a nation, much like the brave Indians who have shouldered these terrible events, can withstand the shock and come together as one people to ensure elements among us who seek to destroy the fabric of our societies will never succeed.

When my mum told me that the Singaporean hostage caught in the Mumbai terrorist attacks had been killed, I was stunned.

No Singaporean had ever been killed in an overseas terrorist attack before.

I realised the next day that I had met the brother-in-law of the victim, Ms Lo Hwei Yen, several times before.

My mum broke her arm in a fall in July, and he was the doctor who treated her with such consummate care and expertise that we looked forward to seeing him in the hospital each time.

We saw him with his team of nurses. He was so busy, yet so helpful. I imagine him now in sudden, inexplicable grief.

I can’t put the picture away.

I can’t put the picture of a city under attack away.

Things have changed irrevocably.

Things I’ve seen on TV and heard from friends have suddenly been converging upon me – as if to emphasise that this scourge of terror is an issue for every Singaporean, no matter who or where they are.

About two months ago, I met a visitor from India – a Ferrari fan – on the chartered bus to the pit grandstand of the Formula One race.

He told me proudly about his city Mumbai, formerly Bombay, and invited me to go there. It’s an exciting place, he said.

I saw it being pummelled, the scene of abject carnage now. At about the same time, my friend Geoff Malone, architect and founder of the Singapore International Film Festival, was describing to me the splendour of the Taj Mahal Hotel.

He had stayed there previously during a film festival, and was impressed by its arch windows and iconic red domes. The past few days, I have seen the building, engulfed by flames and black smoke, on TV.

I never really understood how close and random violence can be – until now.

Even when I was interviewing former American vice-president Al Gore – on the eve of Sept 11′s fifth anniversary in
Hong Kong two years ago, for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth – the proximity of danger and the agony of loss was not impressed upon me.

I asked him how he felt at that time. He told me he’d rather be home with his family.

I really didn’t get his point because it sounded like something that was primarily his problem, not mine.

But one swift, terrible outcome has changed all that.

Indeed, the images of the Taj Mahal Hotel with its windows on fire reminded me of the siege of the Iranian embassy in London, which the SAS – Britain’s anti-terrorist unit – had to break into to rescue hostages.

That was 28 years ago. It looked exciting then.

Not anymore. This time, it’s different. This time it has hit home by hitting one of us.

Ms Lo, as we’re beginning to learn from news reports, led a vibrant life, marked by many similar things we’d do without batting an eyelid.

She went to the Kylie Minogue concert just before she left for Mumbai. My friends were there too. She enjoyed good food and wine. I like that too.

She had a husband, a job, many friends, a loving family and a bright, young life to enjoy.

All she did wrong, if that’s the word to use, was to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. A brief stay is not supposed to turn into a fatal one.

A work trip sounds normal, simply because it’s supposed to be so.

I’ve met someone to whom the victim was dear. Someone I see in grief now. My heart goes out to him and his family.

The 17th-century English poet John Donne once wrote: “Each man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind.”

Her death cannot be just ‘regrettable’; the murderers cannot be merely terrorists; the attackers only misguided fanatics.

The headline writer’s first duty is accuracy – to quickly capture the core sentiment, to reflect the facts.

Because we hold that to be true, it would be so wrong to dilute our choice of a headline.

Singaporeans were outraged yesterday by the senseless murder of one of their own in faraway Mumbai.

Can we call the murderers cowards or something harsher?

What can capture the outrage of Ms Lo Hwei Yen’s husband, her family, friends and fellow Singaporeans?

‘Cowards’ is too mild a word, argue news professionals. The murderers deserve to be called worse, in language you’d hear in the grimy alleys of Geylang.

Theirs was the instinctive rage of readers who spoke to us.

Take care with runaway emotions, caution others.

But no one wants to be part of a society that is indifferent to the news, one that reads little and cares less.

So there are times when newspapers must react in bold print, with urgency and bluntness, to every savage act we report.

Each terrorist attack is a reminder that we live in a dangerous world where no one can be fully shielded from evil, or, for that matter, financial greed.

Yet it has always been numbers (death and injuries) that are the first to be tossed up.

So we wind up mourning quantity rather than people; we may sympathise, but we are largely detached.

Suddenly, Mumbai is not that far away.

Now, it has hit home.

One among us is dead.

So we ask: Why this 28-year-old?

There can never be sense to what poet Robert Penn calls ‘blank, anonymous murder’, the motive-less, gratuitous atrocity.

‘Why did this criminal murder?’ Nietzsche’s Red Judge asked.

‘His soul wanted blood,’ Nietzsche replied, ‘he thirsted after the bliss of the knife.’

In our wrenching dismay, we react with rage before we settle to grieve.

Why anger? Because it is an assault on our middle-class cosiness and on our vague notions of immunity from the killing spree of mass murderers.

American columnist Charles Krauthammer once wrote: ‘Those who have long held a mirror to the world and seen only themselves are apt to be shocked and panicked when the mirror is removed, as inevitably it must be.’

Then her husband got a frantic call early Thursday morning.

The message was shocking: Ms Lo Hwei Yen, 28, told him she was being held hostage in a violent siege.

She updated him several hours later, saying she was unharmed.

But she never made it home.

Ms Lo was killed yesterday at Oberoi-Trident hotel, one of the hotels attacked by the terrorists. She leaves behind her husband, MrMichael Puhaindran, 37.

The couple had just got married in a dream wedding in Bali last June.

Mr Puhaindran, a lawyer, flew to Mumbai on Thursday.

The family is now making arrangements for Ms Lo’s body to be sent home.

It was Mr Puhaindran who called and broke the news of her death to Ms Lo’s family yesterday afternoon.

Ms Lo’s younger sisters, Hwei Shan, 25, and Hwei Rong, 23, said that their mother was still in shock.

Hwei Shan said: ‘Everyone’s just taken aback. She was supposed to come back on Thursday evening. We didn’t expect this to happen at all.’

When The New Paper called the family at 5pm yesterday, sobs could be heard in the background.

The family had gone through a fearful and frustrating 40 hours ever since they found out Ms Lo had been taken hostage at about 2am on Thursday.

Then, Ms Lo had managed to call her husband to tell him what had happened. This was almost immediately after the attacks started.

Said Hwei Shan: ‘We didn’t know what situation she was in.

‘We were up the whole night, trying to find out as much online as we could. We had multiple pages open on the Internet, checking them all the time, trying to sort out what is likely to be true from the various reports.’

Her voice broke as she recounted the agonising search for any clues about her sister’s well-being. After the initial call, Ms Lo only managed to make another call to her husband at 6am on Thursday.

This was followed by more than a day of deafening silence – then the terrible news.

Hwei Shan said that until now, the family still does not know the details of how Ms Lo had died.

But for family, friends and relatives of the 28-year-old lawyer, she is best remembered as a vivacious girl with a “trademark giggle”.

At the wake held at Teresa Ville, her family’s condominium estate in Lower Delta Road, her favourite jazz music by Diana Krall and Stacey Kent was played while friends put up a slide show of her best moments.

She and her husband, Mr Michael Steven Puhaindran, 37, had just got married last June. The folio of photos showed the two at their wedding and during their travels to Paris, as well as other cheerful occasions.

Ms Lo was dressed in a red cheongsam, said younger sister, Hwei Shan, 25. The eldest daughter had worn the dress to her Chinese wedding ceremony.

Her serene features hid the fatal gunshot wounds to her head and abdomen. According to an uncle, she was the one most doted on by the family. “Her father would not deny her anything,” he told my paper.

A bleary-eyed Mr Puhaindran was comforted by 200 friends, family and neighbours.

A close circle of friends had set up a task force that took care of the funeral arrangements and the press, a moving testimony to the couple’s popularity.

Mrs Ila Maheshwari, 63, and Mrs Savita Kapoor, 52, housewives who lived in nearby blocks, paid their respects.

Mrs Kapoor said tearfully: “We have been neighbours for the last 25 years, and we actually never met them. Then we read from the papers that she was from Teresa Ville, and we felt we had to come.”

Surrounded by white lilies and roses, the Lo and Puhaindran families mourned the death of their beloved daughter, sister and wife.

Her husband, Mr Michael Puhaindran, 37, flew back with her body from Mumbai yesterday at 8.03am, accompanied by his father Stanley and about six officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr Puhaindran, senior vice-president of the legal and communications department at GE Money, was too distraught to speak with the press, breaking into tears when relatives and close friends hugged him.

Family members, well-wishers and friends began trickling into the large air-conditioned tent erected near the void deck of Block 1005 Teresa Ville from as early as 6pm. An estimated 200 people were present when the service started at 8.05pm.

Member of Parliament Sam Tan Chin Siong, of Tanjong Pagar GRC, was among those who arrived to pay their respects.

Asked what Ms Lo’s achievements were, younger sister Hwei Shan, 25, said: “She has achieved a lot more than anyone could ever imagine – in her career; having lots of friends.

“She was really loved by everyone.”

Ms Lo was among 30 foreigners who died in the Mumbai terror attacks, which besieged the Indian city from last Wednesday night to last Friday. A total of 172 people were reported dead, but the death toll is expected to rise.

Hours later, at 7.35am last Wednesday, she left for Mumbai for a business seminar, checking into the well-known five-star hotel there, The Oberoi Trident.

Her body was flown back on-board a Singapore Airlines flight from Mumbai, accompanied by her husband, Mr Michael Puhaindran. He had flown to Mumbai on Thursday night to identify her body.

A statement from the President’s Office said that Mr and Mrs Nathan sent their deepest condolences to the parents of Ms Lo and her husband, and their families.

In his condolence letter, PM Lee, who first learnt about the terrorist attacks while he was in Santiago, Chile, said terrorism is a threat that knows no boundaries, adding the Ms Lo’s tragic death brings brings home to everyone the reality of this terrorist threat, and how important it is to keep the guard up and defeat it.

Here is Mr Lee’s letter, released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday:
‘Mr Michael Stephen Puhaindran,

I am deeply shocked and saddened by the loss of your wife, Ms Lo Hwei Yen. On behalf of all Singaporeans, please accept my deepest condolences to you and your family.

I first learnt about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai when I was in Santiago, Chile. My immediate concern was whether any Singaporeans were caught up in the situation.

Many Singaporeans travel and work all over Asia. So I was sure a good number would have been in Mumbai when the attacks happened.

As reports came in, we learnt that several Singaporeans were either in the vicinity of the attacks, or trapped in the Oberoi and Taj Mahal hotels.

We also learnt from you that Hoei Yen had been taken hostage by the terrorists.

I knew that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had arranged for you to fly to Mumbai, and was in touch with the Indian government. I wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to express Singapore’s support and to offer our help to secure the safe release of the hostages.

Tragically, despite the efforts of the Indian security forces, they could not rescue Hoei Yen.

This is the first time a Singaporean has been a victim of a terrorist attack. Terrorism is a threat that knows no boundaries.

This is a family tragedy for you, but it also brings home to all of us the reality of this terrorist threat, and how important it is to keep up our guard and defeat it.

All Singaporeans feel for you and your family in this time of grief.

The loss of any life to terrorism is sad but the loss of a fellow Singaporean is a pain more keenly and more closely felt by every Singaporean. I know that all Singaporeans feel deeply for the family and our hearts go out to them in their time of sorrow and grief.

Our MFA officials have been on the ground with the victim’s family in Singapore and Mumbai since the time we first learnt of her being held hostage. Our officers are working with the Indian authorities to bring her back home.

Our team in Mumbai confirmed this at 2135 hours, Singapore time. A positive identification was made by the husband, accompanied by our High Commissioner.

We would like to convey our sincere condolences to the family of Ms Lo Hoei Yen. This is a tragedy for all Singaporeans.

Lo Hoei Yen, 28, was identified by her husband, who was accompanied by Singapore’s high commissioner, Jai Sohan, consular director of the foreign ministry, told reporters at a late-night news conference.

“We were only told, confirmed, at 21:35 hours (1335 GMT) this evening that she had suffered a tragic death,” Sohan said.

Her body was found on the 19th floor of the Oberoi/Trident hotel, he said.

At least 93 people, most of them foreigners, were released Friday from the Oberoi/Trident hotel more than 36 hours after armed militants seized the building, police said.

A SINGAPOREAN held hostage in a luxury hotel in Mumbai overrun by terrorists remains unharmed in an ongoing stand-off with Indian authorities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said last evening.

She is believed to be a married lawyer in her 20s who works for a law firm here but had gone to India on a business trip. She and her husband have no children, sources told The Straits Times.