Liu Pei Si and David Ling got married when they were only 20 years old, just nine months after they met. For them, life’s greatest journey was spending time with each other every day.
When David was asked what his fondest memory with his wife was, his answer, without hesitation, was: “There is no fondest memory because every day I spent with my wife was a joy.”
“Everything I do, I think about her. Her friends are mine, and my friends are also hers. Her life is mine, and my life is hers. She was the queen of my life,” said David.
Together, at 42, they had raised two sons and were preparing to start traveling while continuing to work. Pei Si was a schoolteacher at SJKC Mun Choong, and David works as a building manager. The couple was well-known around the school, as Pei Si had started her career there 20 years ago as a temporary teacher.
“Even the headmaster knows me because I visited the school so often. We were the 风云人物 (influential figures) at the school,” David said.
Losing Pei Si in the Batang Kali landslide was catastrophic for David. He returned to work a year and a half after the incident, following months of psychological support and caring for his younger son, who survived the landslide with spine injuries.
“As time goes on, it’s like a knife cutting through the wound deeper. The days were difficult, but I knew my boys were looking up to me, so I had to toughen up and do what needed to be done,” David said in Mandarin.
David’s heart broke when he saw his wife’s body in the morgue. “She was someone who always felt cold, and I would always hug her to keep her warm,” he said. Even during her final journey to the undertaker’s car, David accompanied her, going against the usual Chinese norms. “I just couldn’t leave her alone,” he added.
In October 2024, David and his sons decided to pack their belongings and move into their new home, a plan made before the accident. “I packed up my wife’s things into 15 bags, and there are still a ton of books to sort through,” he said.
David fondly recalled accompanying his wife to book fairs. “I used to bring a luggage bag to help her wheel her books back. Some of them haven’t even been opened,” he added.
Pei Si was also an avid scrapbook designer and a frequent winner of a contest held annually for Chinese primary school students. “She was meticulous, often traveling far to find just the right cardboard or paper print for her designs,” said David.
David and Pei Si met on December 31, 1999, during a New Year’s Eve party. David, then a DJ, was approached by Pei Si to request a song for her friends, and the rest is history.
Since losing his wife, David has shed 13 kg. “My wife liked me chubby, and I loved eating her cooking. These days, I eat out, and it’s probably better for my job to be on the lighter side,” he said.
After the accident, one of Pei Si’s colleagues told David that she had dreamt of Pei Si with blue hair. As a tribute to that dream, David dyed his hair blond.
Since the tragedy, David has dreamt of his wife twice. The first dream helped the rescue team recover the body of a boy. “It was two days after the accident. She told me that a boy was still buried near where she was. I went to the rescue team, pointed out the location, and the boy’s body was found,” David said.
“The second time, she covered me with a blanket. She had never done that before. I took it as her final goodbye to me.”
David was fortunate to recover Pei Si’s belongings after the accident. “When I went to collect her things at the police station, the bag was empty, and I was upset. I wanted her phone so badly because it held so many of our memories. Later, the police returned with all her belongings, including the money in her purse,” he shared.
Does David ever think about what he could have done differently on December 16, 2022? “I would have gone with my family to the campsite so we could all sleep in one tent,” said David.
