There's hope
Hugging her children, the China-born Madam Sally told The New Paper in halting English: "I believe that as long as you're determined, there's hope. My case shows the courts recognise a mother's love is the greatest."
Today, the 43-year-old operations executive works from 8.30am to 5.30pm and rushes home to be with her two children in her four-room flat.
She cooks their dinner and supervises their homework. On weekends, they go shopping at places like Jurong Point.
A year ago, things were very different.
Madam Sally was in court, fighting her husband for their children.
Mr Mahendra Sandra Segeram, the lawyer for Madam Sally's ex-husband, had submitted a welfare officer's report that was read in court, stating that Madam Sally had used a belt and a bamboo tube to hit her children.
Furthermore, her ex-husband alleged in court that Madam Sally had threatened to kill herself and the children.
During the initial hearing, Madam Sally had continued to live with her ex-husband and children in their matrimonial home as the flat had yet to be sold pending the finalisation of the divorce.
As her lawyer applied to suspend the earlier judgement, the sale of the matrimonial flat was also stalled.
It took a whole year for the divorce to be finalised because of the custody case.
But the relationship was so bad that husband and wife avoided being in the same room.
If Madam Sally had failed in her appeal, she would have had to move out of the matrimonial home and would have seen her children only four times a week.
Being given access means she would only be able to take them out on certain days of the week, maybe take them shopping or on other outings.
At the end of the day, she would have to return the children to their father.
Madam Sally said: "Although I was never physically separated from the children, the thought of the day when I would have to hand over care and control once the flat was sold was always at the back of my mind."
In her appeal, Ms Grace Malathy, Madam Sally's lawyer, got another psychiatrist, Dr Lim Yun Chin from Raffles Hospital, to tell the court that Madam Sally's condition was a result of her unhappy marriage.
Once the divorce was finalised, the psychiatrist said, she would be all right.
Madam Sally recounted one particular quarrel in February 2007.
They were waiting in a long taxi queue after arriving back in Singapore from a cruise vacation.
Madam Sally said: "I was still breast feeding my son so I wanted to go home as soon as possible. But my ex-husband did not want to spend an extra $3 on calling a taxi.
"So when we finally got into a taxi, I released my pent-up frustration and we slapped each other."
Justice Woo Bih Li overturned the Family Court's verdict, returning care and control of the children to Madam Sally.
In his judgement, he wrote: "Generally speaking, a mother's bond with young children is stronger than that of a father's."
When contacted, Mr Segeram declined comment. So did Madam Sally's ex-husband.
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