MyStory :: Close Encounters of the Nice Kind :: Close @ Lorong Ah Soo

Doris Chua, 54, left
Team Leader
McDonald’s Restaurant
Bishan Junction 8

Chua Hoe Ya, 62, right
Housewife

Neighbours in Lorong Ah Soo for nearly 10 years, Doris and Hoe Ya are often mistaken as sisters.

Coincidentally, they also have the same surname – Chua.

But the closeness between the two women and their family members, goes beyond the superficial.

Hoe Ya, a housewife who lives there with her husband, son, daughter-in-law and their children, said, “My grandchildren think Doris is also their grandma.”

That is not surprising at all, considering the fact that both families keep their front doors open most of the time, and Doris babysits Hoe Ya’s grandchildren regularly.

They also have the keys to each other’s home and would automatically bring in laundries of either families should it rain, when one of them is out.

“It didn’t take very long for us to trust each other,” Doris, a team leader at the McDonald’s Restaurant in Bishan Junction 8, said. “In fact, within a few months after Hoe Ya moved in, we exchanged our keys.”

She said, “I am very sure our former neighbours told Hoe Ya good things about us when she was buying over the unit. I hope she and her family will never move.”

On her day off, Doris goes to the market and stocks up for both families. Hoe Ya said, “She buys groceries for me every week but refuses to let me pay.”

To Doris, it is no big deal. “Because it is a small amount lah,” she said. “Besides, she also gives me things all the time.”

“We are like one family,” they said. “Maybe closer.”