Filipina maid inherits €3m from employer

A DEVOTED Filipina maid inherited €3 million from her late employer after more than 20 years of service, a newspaper said yesterday.

“I am the luckiest maid in Singapore, with or without the money,” the 47-year-old single woman — identified only by the pseudonym “Christine” — told the Straits Times in an interview.

The maid refused to be named in public for fear of possible threats to her life in the impoverished Philippines.

The windfall, including cash and a luxury apartment near the Orchard Road shopping belt, came from the estate of her employer Quek Kai Miew, a medical doctor and philanthropist who died last year aged 66.

The maid had also taken care of the doctor’s late mother, and was told she would be a beneficiary of her employer’s will when it was drawn up in 2008.

“There were no secrets between us. I was not surprised at all when she told me how much I was going to get,” the maid recalled.

“Christine” was devastated when Quek died a year ago, as the two were inseparable, and temporarily moved in with the doctor’s nephew for solace.

“It was heartbreaking for me as I saw more years with Doctor Quek than with my own mother. I would break down every time I thought about her.,” she said.

The maid, who is applying for permanent residency in Singapore, said her newfound wealth had not changed her lifestyle.

“I do not really think much about the money I got. I just live my life as I did before, and not as a rich person,” the maid said. “I am still who I was before. I cannot behave differently because I have money now. Even my Filipino maid friends here still treat me the same.”