He Needed A Loan To Buy A New Phone. His Younger Sister Bought Him An iPhone 7 Instead
"The first thing I felt was not happiness or excitement, but to cry because I was so touched."
By Samantha Khor — 21 Feb 2017, 12:43 PM
When university student Ho Tim Man's phone died on him, he wanted to buy a new phone instead of fixing it for the fourth time. There's only one problem - he doesn't have enough money... because #brokestudent.
On Sunday, Ho posted on Facebook that his iPhone 5S had malfunctioned but he had no intention of fixing it because it had been repaired three times and some of its parts have already started to become problematic.
"So I wanted to switch to an Oppo phone which costs over a thousand ringgit. As I am still studying in university, I didn't have enough money but I didn't want to ask my parents for money either, as they're already having a hard enough time," he wrote, adding that he has held part-time jobs since secondary school instead of relying on his parents for pocket money.
So he decided to ask his younger sister for a RM1,000 loan, promising to pay her back within the year
WhatsApp conversation (above) translated:
"Sister, could you lend me RM1,000? My phone is problematic, I want to buy an Oppo, will pay you back this year."
"When do you want it?"
Not only did she agree to lend him the money, she went ahead and did something completely unexpected. She'd bought him a brand new iPhone 7 Plus instead!
Ho initially thought his sister was playing a prank on him when she sent him a photo of an iPhone 7 Plus. He was supposed to meet her later that evening to pick up the money, but wasn't able to as something had cropped up.
"I told her to stop joking with me. Then, she sent me a photo of the iPhone 7 Plus receipt," he wrote.
"I was stunned. The first thing I felt was not happiness or excitement, but to cry because I was so touched."
In his Facebook post, which has been shared over 8,000 times at the time of writing, Ho wrote that he has "never needed to worry" about his "cheerful, independent" sister.
"My sister is barely 19 years old and a basketball player. Since she was a kid, I have never needed to worry about her. She is bubbly, cheerful, independent, and the apple of our eye. She has never complained about her tough training, she doesn't even tell us when she is injured or being mistreated, because she didn't want us to worry," he wrote.
"I was moved to tears because I was reminded about how my sister had never taken pocket money from our family, went to live in the dormitory by herself and depended on herself for everything. Even the money needed to get her driving license, she settled it on her own."
"Previously, she's been using her Samsung S4 for ages but could not bear to change it (she's currently using my dad's secondhand Samsung S6). Yet, she used the money she had saved over the years to buy an iPhone 7 Plus costing over RM4,000 for me."
"Having a sensible sister like you is my honour. I have never thought of myself as a good brother, I have only been trying my best to live up to the responsibilities of a brother. Thank you for your present, my dearest sister!"
