KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 — Ultramarathon runner Evelyn Ang, with her generosity and sincere smiles, is gone too soon, her husband said today, as he shared some of their expectations of growing old together.

Dennis WM Loo recounted that it was the “loneliest moment” he had ever felt when his wife died in the wee hours of the morning yesterday.

“I will live, I will learn how to cope, but if you ask me...I think I am not ready to let her go.

“I do not know how I’m going to cope with the coming days,” he told reporters in an emotional media conference this afternoon with Ang’s brother Arthur and friend Julie Wong.

“She’s supposed to be my soulmate. We were supposed to grow old together, that’s what we planned, a simple journey.

“We do things together, we go places together, we eat, we enjoy each other’s company and I do not have my wife anymore,” he said, with his voice breaking at the end.

As he spoke about Ang, Loo could be seen holding back his tears before finally breaking down in tears.

Ang was knocked down in a hit-and-run last December 10 during the Klang City International Marathon 2017 and suffered a fractured skull and brain haemorrhage.

Ang, who would have turned 45 on April 13, did not wake up from her coma and died peacefully around 1.30am yesterday.

Loo said his wife’s death was a “very painful” tragedy that he hoped no one else would ever have to go through.

“It’s a tragedy that I have yet to come to terms with, but I have been given — ever since December 10 — 81 days to be with her at her bedside.

“I clean, I do whatever I can as a husband. We know at the end of the day, it’s in sickness and in health,” he said, referring to their wedding vows.

“There was a moment I really thought she could recover,” he said, pausing to hold back his tears, before saying: “but as many days grew, that hope seemed to slowly vanish.”

Loo said he often wondered how he had managed to hold up over the course of close to two months, saying: “I ask that question myself, but it’s because I love her.”

He also said he realised during the period when Ang was hospitalised, that it was his turn to be positive just like his wife, sharing: “She’s always positive, she’s got personal sorrows sometimes, but she always puts a positive mind and never let anything hold her back.”

Love for running, smiles, children

Loo said his wife’s death was a 'very painful' tragedy that he hoped no one else would ever have to go through. — Picture by Zuraneeza Zulkifli
Loo said his wife’s death was a 'very painful' tragedy that he hoped no one else would ever have to go through. — Picture by Zuraneeza Zulkifli

Quoting one of his wife’s Facebook posts “Live, love, laugh and run”, Loo said Ang’s passion to run was also how she met people from all walks of life.

“She has a way with children; she has been on many trips — to Nepal, remote parts of Indonesia. And they do not speak the same language, but you can see everybody that has met her — she goes out (of her way) to get to know that person,” he said, noting how she connects with others through her smile despite the language barrier.

Ang would reach out to those generally shunned by others and was someone who could instantly put you at ease, he said.

“She is as genuine as you can meet, just five minutes of your time and you will know who she is,” he said, adding that his wife touched people by smiling as it was the easiest way to reach a person’s heart.

Loo also questioned today the justice due for his wife.

“We, the family, will mourn Evelyn’s passing. And it will take some time, but ultimately I think we will slowly find our own peace. But what’s justice for Evelyn, what justice? She is gone too soon,” he said.

On February 20, the driver who hit Ang was charged in the Klang Magistrate’s court with reckless and dangerous driving.

Ang’s funeral will be this Sunday.