Author Marilyn Choong believes communicating with the dead can help with grief

While grieving the death of her mother from cancer in June 2022, Singaporean author Marilyn Choong started receiving what she believed were signs from the afterlife — multi-colored feathers began to appear in her home.

- Shawn Hoo

The 43-year-old author of The Thin Veil Between Us, a book that is at once a memoir and self-help book for the grieving, brings out a ceramic cup stuffed with such feathers midway through the interview.

"It's just so queer. We don't even have birds flying up here."

Her book, which reached No. 1 on The Straits Times bestsellers list in the non-fiction category on Oct 5, recounts more than just feather-light encounters with the afterlife.

In it are other forms of "after-death communication" that Choong has experienced: dream visitations, butterflies and meteorological phenomena.

Before this book was published in July, Choong had spotted a singing dove at her balcony, which she also took as another sign of her mother's presence.

While Choong was raised Catholic, she does not believe the book is about validating or discrediting any religious or cultural beliefs — it is simply one way of connecting to the afterlife.