KOTA KINABALU: The Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) folks are still dealing with the loss of their colleague, Ng Shi Ing, one of the MH17 flight passengers after the plane met its ill-fate last week.
A visit to Ng's office at the Psychology and Education Faculty in the campus and one could see a bouquet of white roses at the front door, placed by two research assistants at the faculty.
"There was also a red rose before this, probably left by one of the students in her class," said Audrey Bernard, who bought the flowers with Joan James.
While they have assisted Ng with literacy projects under the faculty, they expressed sorrow for not being able to learn more from her, who was lecturing for the Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) programme.
Ng, 33, fondly known as Jessie, was the second child of six siblings and hailed from Muar, Johor. Her one-year-old son Benjamin and elder sister Elisabeth Ng was with her in the flight.
Senior lecturer Dr Lee Kean Wah said while it was hard to visually see the impact of the loss since it was still semester break, many of Ng's students have shared their sorrows via Facebook and other social media.
Lee himself felt a personal distress, as he was the one who recommended Ng to join the university when she moved here with her husband, Lieutenant Commander Lee Vee Weng who was stationed at the Royal Malaysian Navy base in Sepanggar, here.
"She was teaching at Kota Kinabalu Polytechnic when they moved here in 2009 and it was my wife who said she was good at her job.
"Jessie joined us in 2011 and indeed she was passionate and driven in her work, this was proven as we've done several projects together including literacy projects for rural communities outside the campus.
"Since there are only nine manpower lecturing for the TESL programme, of course we all have grown close and her absence would also have deep impact on our ongoing projects," said Lee.
Another colleague, Assoc Prof Dr Tan Choon Keong said he was supposed to accompany her to the conference at University of Antwerp in Belgium but decided to forgo as there was another conference overseas coming up.
"Jessie was actually planning to further her studies and do a joint PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) with University of Antwerp, and part of the trip was to gain more information. There was so much more she want to achieve," said Lee added.
Lee said the university plans to do a memorial for her, but still waiting for her remains.
"I am in constant contact with her husband who is now in Kuala Lumpur to wait for her remains; we have yet to see if her body was one of the 200 recovered, so we shall see," he explained, adding that her remains was to be sent to her hometown for the funeral ceremony.
Meanwhile, UMS officials also visited Ng's family at Muar yesterday, where they presented contributions from the university and the faculty.
UMS deputy vice-chancellor, Prof Dr Shahril Yusof and Psychology and Education Faculty dean, Prof Dr Ismail Ibrahim, met with Ng's parents Ng Pae Soon, 67 and Tan Ah Chin, 62 to offer their condolences.