SINGAPORE, Aug 17 — When visiting hawker stalls around Singapore, it is not uncommon to see photographs of the stallholder with celebrities who have dined there plastered on the walls.

So, many diners may not bat an eyelid at the photograph of President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and his wife with Botak Cantonese Porridge’s crew, positioned squarely in the stall’s front glass panel at One Punggol Hawker Centre.

Second-generation hawker Lim Hwee Yi, whose parents own the porridge brand, said that the picture was taken when the couple patronised their stall in early July.

However, that was no chance encounter with Singapore’s head of state.

The 26-year-old shares a deeper relationship with the couple, having worked as their bodyguard for six months.

Fresh out of her polytechnic diploma studies and before taking over the reins of her parents’ hawker stall, Lim signed on with the Singapore Police Force in 2019.

There, she served as a security officer to two of the country’s presidents, guarding them and their spouses for about five years.

Lim was the only one of the 20 or so cadets in the same training cohort to become a security officer, after she passed three stringent selection rounds.

After that, she underwent three further months of training to be a security officer, where she was taught to fight, to shoot, and to execute certain operations.

Lim resigned from the force in May this year to helm her family’s porridge business, in a move that took her from the grand surrounds of the Istana to a neighbourhood hawker centre.

Was it a tough decision for her? Not too many people could say that their career decisions come with the support of the country’s first lady.

For Lim, however, Tharman’s spouse, Jane Yumiko Ittogi, played a rather pivotal role in encouraging her to take the leap of faith to leave the service and to pursue her dream of being a hawker.

"(Ms Ittogi), she’s very supportive of me. She is one of the reasons why I decided to take this path,” she told TODAY in an interview held at a table near her stall.

"I was in the car together with her and I was telling her that I had this dilemma — whether I should take over my parents’ business.

"That was when she told me, ‘Hwee Yi, do you know that you are very fortunate to have your parents build this up for you?’”

That gave Lim all the confirmation she needed.

"At that point in time, I decided, ‘Yeah, I will take this path’.”

From the Istana grounds to a porridge stall

The hawker trade is not new to Lim, whose parents had met while running separate hawker stalls at Golden Mile Food Centre a couple of decades ago.

The couple jointly set up their first Botak Cantonese Porridge stall eight years ago at Our Tampines Hub Hawker Centre. Last October, they opened a second outlet at One Punggol Hawker Centre.

So when Lim, the couple’s only child, graduated from Temasek Polytechnic in 2018 with a diploma in marketing, the desire to follow in her parents’ footsteps came naturally to her.

"Before signing on, at around 21 years old, I helped out my parents (at their stall) for roughly six to eight months. At that point of time, I told them that I wanted to take over the business.

"But they told me, ‘You’re 21 years old, you’re still too young. You need to go and experience life, and to pursue your passion first. After five years, if you think that you’re ready and you’re up for it again, and if you truly want it, then you come back’. They’ll always be here for me.”

Heeding their advice, Lim decided to sign with the police force to fulfil another childhood dream — becoming a police officer.

And how did she end up guarding the country’s presidents as a newbie?

Lim recalled attending an internal talk by the Police Security Command towards the end of her six-month training period as a cadet, which piqued her interest in being a security officer.

The Police Security Command is the division within the force that is responsible for guarding the personal safety and security of all Cabinet ministers and visiting foreign dignitaries.

Though she knew that it was a "high-risk job”, Lim said: "They told us about their work and it caught my attention. We are able to serve our country’s leaders, and that is very interesting to me.”

There was also a special demand for female security officers at the time, to serve the country’s first female president Halimah Yacob, who was in the top job from 2017 to 2023.

Laughing, she added: "And their main selling point is that we can travel overseas!”

Indeed, during her five years on active duty, two memorable experiences stood out: Accompanying then President Halimah on a trip to the United Kingdom to attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in 2022, and flying on a private jet to attend another world leader’s funeral.

Of the private jet experience, Lim quickly told me that it was a one-off for the president and the team.

She made it clear to me that all official travel is by commercial flights only, but this trip was urgent and extremely last-minute, with the only option being a private jet.

Learnt to ‘talk less’

Standing at 156cm, I am often the shortest person in any social situation, but there I was standing a few centimetres taller than Lim during our interview on Tuesday afternoon.

Her mannerisms were a stark contrast from the aloof front I’d stereotypically expected of someone once entrusted with guarding the country’s head of state. She was warm, animated and had a wide smile — and our conversation was peppered with laughter, mostly from her.

Though hesitant to perpetuate that stereotype, I could not resist asking: Did she ever worry that people would doubt her ability to do the job, given that she was young, petite, this cheerful, and a woman?

Lim laughed and admitted that aside from having to strengthen herself and learn tactical combat, she did also train herself to channel a more stoic demeanour contrary to her usual chirpy self.

"Actually, I’m very bubbly, I like to talk a lot. Usually, I’m not very fierce, or only when I’m focused, then I’ll be a little fiercer — so that’s a facade that I learned to have through the training,” she said.

"For me, I know that I’m slightly smaller in size and I’m a female, so whenever you catch me when I’m working, I usually give a very stern and fierce face.

"I realised that for my height and everything, people might doubt my ability, so I will always try to have a more fierce front.”

Being able to switch between a serious and more relaxed persona may not necessarily translate into a useful skill for her as a hawker, but maintaining a cool composure under stress has been helpful, she added.

When the dinner or lunchtime crowd came round, Lim was unfazed, remaining calm as she handled each customer’s order.

She said that she shrugs off the occasional burn or cut that happens on the job and uses the first-aid skills that she learnt during her previous role to treat herself.

Another transferable skill from her past job is to be quick on her feet.

"(As security officers) we cannot 100 per cent prevent things from happening, but we have to react quickly when things do happen.

"This shaped me in the way that I run my new shop; when things happen, we do not fall. We just find ways to solve the issue and then we move on.”

‘Incredible’ five years of memories but time to move on

What she misses the most about her former job is being trained to handle a gun.

"I did this (security officer) job for five years, it was incredible. Then I decided that it was enough — I’ve had my share of fun and my share of memories,” Lim said.

"Now, it’s time for me to put in everything for my parents’ business. Also, I’m an only child. So if it’s not me, then who, right?”

After consulting Ittogi and receiving her encouragement, Lim traded in her gun for a ladle.

In May this year, she resigned from the force and started helping out full-time at her parents’ shops. The month of May marked her fifth anniversary in service, which Lim said was a "nice closure”.

Asked if her initial months of being a full-time hawker have lived up to her expectations, having held onto her dream for five years, Lim smiled and said: "Being in a hawker stall is very natural to me. I feel like I belong here.”

The greatest adjustment she has had to make was the longer hours as a hawker — working six-day weeks, instead of the five days she used to work as a security officer.

"It’s a six-day work week, with one day off. And even on that one day off, if anything were to happen at the shop, I’d still have to help out. After all, the stall’s my baby... and that has happened quite a few times,” she said.

"But I think I reap what I sow. With the hard work that I put in, I really hope that this business will grow, and that it will be worth it.”

Still, her past is not that far behind.

Regular customers to the family’s porridge shops have approached her parents, excitedly exclaiming that they had seen Lim on television or in the news, photographed alongside the president.

Given that so much can change in five years, what is in the works for her five years from now?

While she would not close the door or rule out the possibility of one day returning to the police force, Lim said that her focus for now is on running the family’s business.

"For the next five years, I really hope that we can expand, and that I will be able to have the opportunity to find like-minded youngsters like myself who are not afraid of hardship — youngsters who are willing to put in the effort, and who are also interested in the food business, then we can build this up together.”

The interview drew to a close just as the dinner crowd began to form a queue at the stall.

Lim picked up an apron, her nimble fingers deftly tying it around her waist as she returned to the shop. Behind the counter, her fingers moved quickly to receive cash from customers, before she slid behind the booth to ladle ingredients and porridge into a pot.

Her mother, 56-year-old Lim Chin Gek, watched on from outside the shop.

"As much as we want our daughter to succeed the business, we want her to have a better life and not to endure the hardship that we have been through,” she told TODAY.

"We wanted her to explore her career options and we were overjoyed that she had chosen to join the Singapore Police Force as a personal security officer.”

Yet, even though her mother acknowledged that it was a "meaningful job... with a better career prospect, welfare and working environment” for Lim, she also expressed support for her ultimate decision.

"We are happy that Hwee Yi understands that running a business is not just about making profit but having a meaningful purpose in life. She wants to continue her father’s mission in providing delicious and affordable staple meals for the community,” she added.

"We are happy that our business has a successor. We respect her decision and will continue to provide her with guidance.” — TODAY