27 years after her road accident, a Singaporean searches for the couple who saved her life

CNA

a day ago

There is often no telling what cues would trigger which memories long buried. You could catch a whiff of someone's perfume on the bus, and just like that, remember the year it took to get over an ex who smelled the same, along with the hobbies you picked up to fill the void.
In cognitive psychology, this phenomenon is known as an involuntary autobiographical memory chain. These spontaneous recollections unfold as a sequence of associated memories, each one triggering the next, without conscious effort.
Often, these memories come and go – reminders of the life we've lived – with little need to act upon them.
For one Singaporean woman, however, a mix of seemingly inconsequential and unrelated cues recently evoked memories of her cycling accident 27 years ago, prompting a search for the couple whom she believes saved her life then.
THE CYCLING ACCIDENT
Jacqueline Gan was 24 when she was hit by a car while cycling.
The accident happened at the junction of Marymount Road and Marymount Lane at 6.15am on Dec 18, 1998.
Gan recalled being lifted 'some distance into mid-air', before collapsing onto the ground. Despite her light-headedness, she remembered seeing 'a lot of blood' flowing from her face onto her blue Catholic Junior College T-shirt – and then, a car stopped beside her.
The Chinese couple who stepped out of the vehicle were 'uttering in Singlish Mandarin, wondering who could've knocked me over, and said they needed to quickly bring me to the hospital', she recounted to CNA Lifestyle, after reaching out via email in May, hoping to get her story heard.
'I was just so dazed and helpless, I just got brought into the car. And that was it.'
In her state, Gan didn't get the couple's names or any identifying details, or a chance to thank them.
She only remembers they'd ferried her to the nearby Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), before she was transferred to Singapore General Hospital's (SGH) accident and emergency unit.
In total, she estimates getting around 60 to 70 stitches on her face – including her gums, mouth, nose, cheeks and the area around her eyes.
'I was 24 then. I'd just started my career, and things were very good. I was also improving my relationship with my brother. I'd go cycling with him, so that cycling equipment (the bicycle I was riding when I was hit) was very important to me,' she shared.
'And then this happened. Why did this happen?'
It's a question she's still unable to answer, although Gan, now 51, has found her own closure since relocating to Hong Kong in 2001.
She stopped cycling on public roads to ease her mum's worries, but rediscovered her love for running, having once represented her school as a sprinter in her youth. Running outdoors gave her the 'physical and mental closure' she was seeking.
'Every now and then, I will think about this accident, about the impact it had on me and my family, and how it spurred me on to other activities,' she added.
'But even when I'd write (in my blog) about the accident, I still didn't think about the doctors or the couple.'
INCIDENT THAT LED TO SEARCH FOR COUPLE
That is, until a simple incident in March this year gave her a new perspective.
Gan was in Johor Bahru with her husband and now-elderly mum when, while carrying her mum's groceries, she felt something shift in the bag. Instead of looking down to readjust the goods, she instinctively reached in to identify the item – and experienced a flashback.
'That moment brought me back to those days after the accident, when I had to move around the home using my sense of touch without visual help,' she said, noting her eyesight had been temporarily affected by her injuries.
'And because I was focused on my sense of touch now – instead of how the overall accident affected me and my family, like I usually do – I was looking at the accident from another perspective.'
One memory unlocked another. Gan recalled that the couple had been around her mum's age when they rescued her, so they were 'not young' anymore, and felt compelled to try and reach out to them.
In May, she wrote to the Traffic Police (TP) but was told there were no records of the couple's names – they weren't witnesses to the accident.
Neither did the hospitals, both TTSH and SGH, have their identity. She reached out to them, hoping to thank the surgeons who operated on her, though that search has proven futile too as she never got their names decades ago. Her medical documents were also disposed of when her mum moved house.
The only physical artefact from the time was a letter from TP, dated about a year after the accident, which she showed CNA Lifestyle. The driver, who was unnamed in the letter, was eventually fined for 'removing the vehicle without the authority of a police officer', the letter stated.
She had decided not to press charges, she said. 'If I can live on – fortunately that's the case – it's okay. I don't want to pursue more.'
'I WANT TO THANK THEM FOR WHAT THEY DID FOR ME'
Gan knows the chances of finding the couple now are slim, even with the power of social media.
But having found meaning in helping others, especially during the pandemic, she recognises the ripple effect of a single act of goodwill. In her case, the couple's help was 'the first step that allowed me to survive to this day', she said.
'I would not have been able to help others if not for them. If they didn't help me at that time, I cannot imagine what would happen because I lost so much blood.'
After the accident, Gan and her husband pursued their Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) before starting a company in Hong Kong focused on risk and security projects. The language enthusiast also picked up German and French, travelled widely, and built a purposeful, expansive life – one that ultimately surpassed the career she once believed had been derailed.
'So, a lot of things are possible for me to explore. I don't know why it took me such a long time to realise that maybe I should really thank the people who helped me in the first place, to allow me to be doing what I am doing now,' she said.
'I'd like to let them know I'm doing good. And I want to thank them for what they did for me, because I can live to this age and still do more.'