November 21, 2007
SAM RICHES, POLICE REPORTER
The Advertiser (Adelaide, Australia)
MARRIED for 50 years Lun Ly and his wife, Touch Pan, were "so connected" they wouldn't have been able to live without each other.
The couple died last Friday when their van collided with a goods train at a level crossing at Virginia.
Aun Lun, the couple's daughter said her father had told a friend that when he died, he wanted his wife to be with him.
"They were so connected, they couldn't have lived without each other," she said.
"In a way it's sad because they're gone, but in another way, he got his wish."
According to Buddhist tradition, families who knew the couple within Adelaide's Cambodian community arrive each night at their house in the seven days since their death to pray.
Up to 200 families have visited their Woodville South home, astounding the couple's children, who are learning more about their parents since they died. Mr Ly, 74, and Ms Pan, 72, arrived in Australia in 1984 as refugees with six children, having fled the war in Cambodia and survived refugee camps in Thailand.
Settling in South Australia, they worked hard to provide for their nine children, ranging in age from 49 to 26. For the past five years, the extremely active couple refused to slow down and returned to Cambodia undertaking charity work; building homes for the poor, helping in orphanages and with the needy and drilling water wells in impoverished towns without the luxury of water.
It is their devotion to their charity work which earned the couple Medals of Honour from the Cambodian Government.
It is one of these well sites which is likely to be where their ashes will be scattered.
"Because they were so comfortable in life and their lives were fortunate, given where we came from, they believed if they could help some others, it would make a difference in the world," Ms Lun said. Six weeks, ago the couple returned from their last two-month trip and were already planning the next trip.
At home, they kept busy with their hobby of growing vegetables and attending the Gepps Cross markets each Sunday.
It was preparing for this which saw the couple out at Virginia on Friday.
"Dad would love to get right into the dirt . . . He was very strong, always thinking, but kept a lot inside," Ms Lun said.
"Mum was the opposite - always talking . . . they would fight, they'd been together 50 years but still can't communicate, we'd go home and laugh. They were so sweet and now, at least they still have each other."
The couple died last Friday when their van collided with a goods train at a level crossing at Virginia.
Aun Lun, the couple's daughter said her father had told a friend that when he died, he wanted his wife to be with him.
"They were so connected, they couldn't have lived without each other," she said.
"In a way it's sad because they're gone, but in another way, he got his wish."
According to Buddhist tradition, families who knew the couple within Adelaide's Cambodian community arrive each night at their house in the seven days since their death to pray.
Up to 200 families have visited their Woodville South home, astounding the couple's children, who are learning more about their parents since they died. Mr Ly, 74, and Ms Pan, 72, arrived in Australia in 1984 as refugees with six children, having fled the war in Cambodia and survived refugee camps in Thailand.
Settling in South Australia, they worked hard to provide for their nine children, ranging in age from 49 to 26. For the past five years, the extremely active couple refused to slow down and returned to Cambodia undertaking charity work; building homes for the poor, helping in orphanages and with the needy and drilling water wells in impoverished towns without the luxury of water.
It is their devotion to their charity work which earned the couple Medals of Honour from the Cambodian Government.
It is one of these well sites which is likely to be where their ashes will be scattered.
"Because they were so comfortable in life and their lives were fortunate, given where we came from, they believed if they could help some others, it would make a difference in the world," Ms Lun said. Six weeks, ago the couple returned from their last two-month trip and were already planning the next trip.
At home, they kept busy with their hobby of growing vegetables and attending the Gepps Cross markets each Sunday.
It was preparing for this which saw the couple out at Virginia on Friday.
"Dad would love to get right into the dirt . . . He was very strong, always thinking, but kept a lot inside," Ms Lun said.
"Mum was the opposite - always talking . . . they would fight, they'd been together 50 years but still can't communicate, we'd go home and laugh. They were so sweet and now, at least they still have each other."
