Feeling bored at the age of 70 in 1998, Goh Gwek Eng took up a job at a McDonald’s outlet at Bedok Interchange and soon gained a reputation as the fast-food chain’s oldest employee in Singapore.
On Monday, the lady passed away at the grand old age of 90, Lianhe Wanbao reported.
Diagnosed with Stage 3 stomach cancer in January last year, her son noted that Goh had grown frail in the past few years, and needed to reduce her work hours from five days a week to three-hour shifts on weekends. By the time she stopped working completely last October, she had been with McDonald’s for close to 20 years, said a company spokesman to The Straits Times — a fact that both her family and McDonald’s did not expect at all.
McDonald’s Singapore’s oldest employee, Madam Goh Gwek Eng, dies aged 90. https://t.co/mca3mAbsBB pic.twitter.com/4LnwGWFarO
— The Straits Times (@STcom) January 23, 2018
An ST profile piece about Goh in 2016 noted that the matriarch had worked for the British as a helper in the ‘50s and ’80s and survived the Japanese Occupation before becoming a housewife, having three children, nine grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren. With her children already working and having their own families, she grew bored at home and looked for a job at McDonald’s, where her years of experience in the kitchen came in handy.
“Mum really cherished her ability to work independently, and she did not ask for money from her children,” said Goh’s son to Lianhe Wanbao. “She also kept the certificates and prizes she got from work carefully and treated them as treasures.”
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