Tiaran Profile – Margaret Lim

n a past issue of Tiara Times, a reader had requested profiles of Tiarans who had "special services" to offer. So, for this issue’s Tiaran Profile, we have chosen a Tiaran with a special service: Margaret Lim Wee Lien, the "Florence Nightingale of Tiara."

Born in Malacca, the middle of 7 siblings, 2 brothers and 4 sisters, Margaret was brought up in her father's bookshop in Malacca, the sole English bookstore in the town then. Because of this influence, all her siblings as well as herself love books.

When her father sent all his children to English medium schools, he was reprimanded by a Beijing university graduate Uncle for being disloyal to the mother tongue, so Margaret was picked to study in a Chinese medium school. But after six years of "chong koh" education in a Chinese public school in Malacca, where she "excelled in calligraphy but not Chinese studies", Margaret pleaded to be sent to an English medium school. Since her Hainanese housewife mother, and businessman father could not tutor her in Chinese, not being conversant in that field themselves, she was sent to join her four sisters at the Canossian Convent in Malacca. Because of her English and Chinese school upbringing, she considers herself lucky, "because I gained a lot from both schools of thought."

In school, she was active in sports and was made the Green House Captain and Captain of the school hockey team. She was also a cadet officer of the Red Cross Society, and a school prefect. She also enjoyed singing, and made it to the school choir. Today, that love has been enriched when she became a church chorister and later, a member of the K.L. Philharmonic Choir, which she joined three years ago when it advertised for singers for a Christmas presentation.

Since then, she has participated annually in Philharmonic presentations for charity: "The Merry Widow" at the Corus Hotel; the "Celebrate Life" dinner at the Crown Plaza Mutiara; and the "Broadway Show" at the Panggung Theatre in KL. Charities which benefited from these shows included the National Cancer Society and the National Stroke Association of Malaysia.

Practices are on Mondays, 8-10pm,and Margaret never fails to attend unless she is overseas.

After completion of her O-Levels, Margaret went straight into nursing. This, she said, "was mainly due to the influence of the Reverend Mother of the convent I went to, who said that 'girls don’t go to university but can only be teachers and nurses’.”

She traveled to Singapore to be trained under the Franciscan Missionary of the Divine Motherhood, the order of nuns responsible for teaching nursing. She shared a room with an Indian and a Chinese student, who both eventually became nuns after graduation. Margaret was close to entering the nun hood as well, she confessed, but did not.

The first year was T.B. nursing, where she learnt to nurse TB patients at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital. She received her British T.B. certificate before entering her second year, joining the Singapore General Hospital. The nuns laid a strong foundation in nursing for their students and "I am very grateful to them and have no regrets training under them. They made us all follow in the footsteps of Florence Nightingale."

After graduating as a State Registered Nurse and later, a Staff Nurse, she left for Birmingham, England, to study Occupational Health Nursing and Midwifery in Edinburgh, doing private nursing in between courses. Private nursing took "me to the homes of the War Disabled, the Disabled Children’s' Home run by the Girl Guides, the Unwed Mothers' Home in South London and the famous Harley Street Hospital in London, where the rich and famous go for specialist treatment."

During her three and a half year stint in England Margaret traveled the length and breadth of the country as well as Europe, taking the opportunity to visit as many places as she was able to: Rome, Paris, Pompeii, the Isle of Capri, Switzerland, etc.

When she arrived back home in Malacca she was penniless, having spent all her earnings on sightseeing trips. "I had to borrow money from my father before starting work again. I worked at the University Hospital, Chinese Maternity Hospital, the Lady Templar Hospital and finally, as a Sister in a private hospital."

Finally, twenty years ago, Margaret resigned from the private hospital to start her own private nursing agency. Her main reason was to enable her to spend more time with her young daughter Jessie.
Her many years in the private sector have taken her into the homes of many dignitaries, the wife of a former Prime Minister, and the families of several present Cabinet Ministers besides the poor as well. Irrespective of their financial standing, her team of nurses treats them all equally, giving of their best. Her nurses are all trained in nursing and know the A-Z of health care. "They are trained to look after the sick, but often clients think they are there to wash and cook for the sick as well. So I have to explain very clearly to my clients that my nurses perform nursing care and are not maids.’’

Getting desperate calls at unearthly hours is nothing strange to her. In such instances, Margaret personally drives over to attend to the patient, and delegates the work to one of her nurses only after the patient has passed the critical stage.

Despite her hectic schedule, Margaret still manages time for other hobbies, like taking part in the Damansara Hash House Harriers. Since becoming a Harriet in l989, she is a hard-core runner and is loathe missing even a single one of her Friday runs.

"It is not only the exercise that I look forward to, but the camaraderie with the Hashers. I get to run into the jungle and plantations, sometimes as far as Genting Highlands, Semenyih and Rawang as well. It is such pure joy running cross country and seeing orang asli, hearing the birds twittering, monkeys swaying from tree branches, the occasional wild boar and even snakes. Not to mention the chatter and dinner with our comrades after the run. Often, we break up after midnight, when I drive home for a well earned rest."

Besides hashing, Margaret has also taken part in marathons. Her interest in this started in l986 when she was invited to take part in a charity run to draw awareness to conservation of the Endau-Rompin forest. Then, it was only a 5-kilometre run in Templar's Park. From there, she went on to l0 kilometre runs, 21 kilometres, the Penang and Trengannu Bridge Runs and finally, in the early l990's she did her first full KL Marathon Run of 42 kilometres. She has since taken part in other KL, Penang and Singapore Full Marathons, accumulating countless medals in the process.

She is also a member of the KL Veteran Athletes Association, where championship meets are held regularly, with participants coming from all parts of the world to take part.

Besides taking part in the choirs mentioned earlier, Margaret enjoys gardening, reading, writing and sewing. She is contemplating starting a sewing session in Tiara, and has roped in her sister, who lives in Damansara Heights, to assist and coach, interested parties in craftwork, patchwork (group patchwork) and beadwork for slippers. She hopes to sell these items to raise funds for charity, or give the proceeds, perhaps, to our own Tiaran Social Fund, should such be set up.

For Tiarans, their families, relatives or friends requiring nursing care, or are interested in joining any of her interest groups: hashing, KL Philharmonic Choir, sewing group, marathon running, Margaret can be reached at 012-9067033 / 03-79540855 (after 10am), or at wlien7@yahoo.com from January 15th, 2007 onwards. Until then, she is fully occupied.