Simple meal: Siti Suhaila packing Lui’s daily fix of nasi lemak and black coffee at her stall in George Town.
KLANG: Initially, when a senior citizen came to her stall to buy nasi lemak daily, Siti Suhaila Ithnin thought he was just like any other customer.
However, she noticed that he collected discarded cardboard boxes in his old rickety bicycle and sold them to a recycle centre.
“I thought he was doing it for extra money but something about this uncle tugged at my heartstrings,’’ she said in an interview.
Siti Suhaila, whose stall is at Jalan Datuk Keramat in Penang’s George Town, said she could not ask more details from the uncle as he could not speak Malay much.
She said the elderly man, who she later found out to be 83-year-old Lui Chee Teik, also appeared to be suffering from dementia.
One day, the mother of a 22-month-old girl, decided to tail Lui home after he had bought his usual nasi lemak.
What she saw, recalled Siti Suhaila, truly broke her heart.
“He was living in extreme poverty. I realised he was collecting the cardboard boxes and selling them to pay for his daily nasi lemak,’’ she said.
Siti Suhaila then took it upon herself to upload a video of Lui’s plight on her TikTok account and stopped accepting money for his food from the next day onwards.Seeing that his bicycle was literally falling apart, Siti Suhaila also decided to look for and buy him a new one.
As the bicycle cost about RM800, Siti Suhaila again posted on TikTok, asking if any of her followers would like to help out and donate half of the amount.
“I managed to collect RM400 within a short period of time and went to buy the bicycle from a shop called Basikal Penang.
“Its owner, who had come to know about the uncle through my TikTok posts, gave me a 50% discount on the bicycle,’’ she said.
Hence, in addition to presenting Lui with the bicycle, Siti Suhaila also gave him the remaining RM400 in cash.
According to Siti Suhaila, many of her customers came to know of Lui’s predicament as well, and some of them decided to chip in by not taking their change back after buying her nasi lemak, saying that it was their contribution towards his daily meal.
“He does not collect cardboard to be sold anymore. I think it is because he does not have to pay for his daily meal now.
“I will continue to give him his usual nasi lemak or whatever he wants every day plus a cup of black coffee as well,’’ she said.
Siti Suhaila reckons that she is fated to meet Lui so that his life could change for the better.
“I am happy to be able to assist the uncle so that he can spend his twilight years a little easier,’’ she said.
Lui’s story had also reached Komtar assemblyman Teh Lai Heng who visited his home recently.
“I was told that he had a wife but they were estranged,’’ Teh said when contacted.
He added that Lui had lost his MyKad and could not even remember his full name.
“We managed to trace the required details at the National Registration Department and got him a replacement document.
“He declined our offer to have him stay at an old folks’ home,’’ he said.
