SINGAPORE – When a coffee shop stall became available in Serangoon Central, Mitchell Ong snapped up the lease for the ninth outlet of his Shiok Hokkien Mee chain. The location was near his family home, and he wanted his mother to see how far he had come in life. But she never saw it. His mother died from multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer that affects the bone marrow, on July 4 at age 63, just three weeks before the stall opened on July 26. “My plan was for her to see the new outlet and show her how well I have done,” says the 27-year-old, tears welling up in his eyes. The day after her funeral, he returned to work. “If I stayed at…
