WHEN their daughter, Paula, left home to further her studies at the age of 19, her parents felt as though their world had fallen apart. Now 43, she remains very much the apple of her parents' eyes.

Peter Tan, 77, and Kathleen Tung, 71, who live in Penang, still find it hard living apart from their daughter, who works in Kuala Lumpur.

The couple would look forward to every visit and call from Paula.

"She is very precious to us and we can't wait whenever she says she's coming to visit.

"We would be very sad whenever her visit home comes to an end," said Kathleen, adding that they would call her every day, sometimes several times a day.

She said her daughter was precious to them as she had suffered so many miscarriages.

"After so many miscarriages, Paula was like a godsend and we treated her like our little angel. We cannot imagine our life without her."

Kathleen, a former nurse, said her husband would always ask her why their only daughter had to live so far from them.

"Even when Paula was studying in the United States, both of us would feel so lost as we felt she was so far away."

Another couple, both over 70, who chose to remain anonymous, said they felt lost when both their sons left home to pursue their studies overseas.

"They were the centre of our lives. Our lives revolved solely around them. We did everything for them, even stayed awake to keep them company when they burnt the midnight oil," they said.

They lived in their own world until the day came for their older son to leave home to study abroad.

"We were sad and felt a void when he left, but it did not hit us so bad as the younger boy was still with us.

"It hit us like a tonne of bricks when it was his turn to leave. We even contemplated sending him to a local university so that he would be closer to home," the mother said.

The couple thought their sons would be back after a few years abroad and things would be the same again.

But both the sons decided to stay back and work there leaving their parents sad and on the verge of depression.

"We felt our lives were meaningless and that our sons did not love us like how we loved them.

"As much as we were selfish to think that they would come back and be with us like old times, we know they have lives of their own and we should move on, too," the father said, adding that they now travelled more and visited their sons once a year.

-New Straits Times