Sharon Au pays tribute to late father who divorced mum, had another family: 'Too many regrets'

Lim Ruey Yan
The Straits Times
Jan 5, 2024

Having been raised by a single mother, home-grown actress Sharon Au may not have spoken much about her estranged father to the media.

But the 48-year-old poured out her sorrow on social media over Mr Jeffrey Au’s death at the age of 74.

Sharing a portrait of him on Facebook on Jan 3, Sharon Au wrote: “I love you, Dad. I didn’t get to tell you. Too many words unsaid. Too many regrets. Grief-stricken. Can you hear me wherever you are?”

When she appeared on TV host Quan Yifeng’s talk show Hear U Out in late 2020, Au revealed that when she was a child, she was shuttled between relatives each year as her parents were divorced. Her father had another family and would visit her once a month to take her out for fast food.

And in a column Au wrote for Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao in March 2022, she said she had not seen her father in more than 20 years.

Au, who is based in Paris, immediately flew back to Singapore after learning of his death and broke down on the plane.

As one of the cast members of Nine Years Theatre’s upcoming play Everything For You for Huayi - Chinese Festival Of Arts, which will be staged on Feb 16 and 17, she headed into rehearsals soon after returning home, but admitted that she had to hold back her grief to not affect the team.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Nine Years Theatre (@nineyearstheatre)

“I cry whenever I am not at work, when I am alone, when it is at night. Like now,” she told The Straits Times in a WhatsApp message at close to 2am on Jan 4.

Au said her father was a former disciplinary master at St Andrew’s Secondary School and was previously a police officer with the Secret Societies Branch (SSB) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

“Over the past three days, I have received an outpouring of messages from people whose lives have changed because of my dad. I am reading them one by one. There are about 500+. I have yet to reach the end,” she said.

“They (spoke) about what an inspiring, fierce but kind disciplinary master he was, with a wicked sense of humour, and how his anti-gang campus tours and talks prevented them from going astray. He used to say, ‘If you want to join a gang, join the biggest, strongest gang of all, the SSB/CID Singapore Police Force.’”

Au said some of the anecdotes they shared about their personal encounters with her father made her cry so much, while other stories made her laugh out loud.

“One wrote that my dad was so passionate and enthusiastic during his talks that two microphones failed to last, and the AV (audio visual) team had to inform him that was the last working mic. Now I see where my comedy talent came from,” she quipped.

Au said many people shared her social media post, and she read their tributes to her father with overflowing pride.

“They called him GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). They called him ‘the real thing’. They called him a legend,” she said. “The legend in white, because he was always dressed in white from head to toe, down to his shoes. When I was 10, I called him my Prince Charming.

“I didn’t know he was so well-loved and respected by so many students and peers. And now it is too late to tell him I am so proud of him. And that I love him.”

Au shared more unforgettable father-daughter moments with Zaobao in a separate interview.

She recounted that while taking her O levels, she would study at the community centre near her alma mater, CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School, after school every day, and would not return home until after midnight.

Her aunt, whom Au was staying with at the time, assumed she was keeping bad company, and word got to her father.

Au recalled: “My father used his magical ‘CID method’ and somehow managed to find me. He broke down the door as if he were a police officer apprehending the bad guys in a TV drama, only to find 10 pairs of shocked eyes staring at him.”

She said she still remembers the startled look on his face when he realised the studious teens were just revising for their exams.

Her father then took her to a coffeeshop to explain his actions and advised her to study hard.

“I can’t forget the brief period of time we were drinking coffee. He was so dashing and funny,” she said.