The Jakarta Post
Dian Kuswandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
| Wed, 05/19/2010 9:38 AM | People
When a fortuneteller passes away, the question burning on everyone’s mind is: “Had they ever predicted of their own death?”.
In the case of famous psychic Laurentia Pasaribu — popularly known as Mama Lauren, who died at on Monday night, May 17, 2010, the answer remains a mystery.
“Mama had always said: ‘Would I still be alive by the end of the year?’” said Beby Djenar, Lauren’s student and foster daughter. But during the last hours of her life, Beby went on, “She whispered to me, saying, ‘I’m done.’
“The last time I had eye contact with her, fresh tears were welling up,” she added.
Born in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on Jan. 23, 1932, Lauren died at 78, at the PGI Cikini Hospital in Central Jakarta, after fighting heart and lung problems. The fortune teller started to show signs of ailing health last year. So early this year, Lauren decided to take a rest and stopped seeing clients.
“She had stopped practicing in early January [2010] after the doctor told her to take a break,” Beby said. “She entrusted me to handle her clients ever since,” she added.
Lauren became renowned as a personal advisor for celebrities and high-ranking officials. She was known for her “visions” of the country’s future – and most of all – celebrity lives. Every December or January, tabloids would publish her predictions over certain local issues, like politics and natural disasters. Her most-awaited predictions, however, were those surrounding the life of celebrities and famous people – she often predicted who would die that year, who would divorce from whom, and who would stay in prison.
Early 2004, for example, she predicted a young, rising actress would die at the end of the year because of an accident. That September, 24-year-old actress Sukma Ayu died after a comma from an accident in a night club. Not only that, Lauren also advised singer Krisdayanti to reveal her alleged affair with musician Tohpati, or she would risk her marriage with musician Anang Hermansyah. Two years after that prediction, Krisdayanti ended up divorcing Anang.
Lauren realized she had psychic abilities in 1939, when she was only seven years old and lived in the Netherlands. The woman with gypsy-blood running in her veins told Femina magazine about the day she heard voices while studying in her classroom, asking her to leave the school immediately. She told her school teachers about it, and was expelled from the class, after they accused her of telling lies. Young Lauren cried to her foster grandmother Antoineta as she came home, but was shocked later as she heard the news: “My school had just been bombed,” and hundreds of her friends and teachers had died in the tragedy, which was part of the Second World War events.
From that moment on, Lauren confessed, her friends started calling her a “witch”, and considered her as someone who brought curses everywhere she went.
“I realized that I was different [from others], especially as I ‘heard’ and ‘saw’ more and more events,” she said as quoted by the magazine. One of the events, she said, was the death of her Indonesian husband Natakusuma. Lauren said she knew her husband would pass away one year before he really died, in 1973.
After her husband’s death, Lauren met Hendrik Pasaribu, whom she described as her soul mate. When she first met Hendrik, Lauren said, she knew they were destined together although he was 15 years younger and already married to another woman. But years passed and they met again when Hendrik was a single man again. They tied the knot and stayed together for the next 28 years later, until the day Lauren passed away.
“My heart is broken,” said Hendrik, who had two children with Lauren. “She had always made my life beautiful and I could never forget her love for our family.”
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/05/19/indonesia%E2%80%99s-favorite-psychic-dies-78.html
| Wed, 05/19/2010 9:38 AM | People
When a fortuneteller passes away, the question burning on everyone’s mind is: “Had they ever predicted of their own death?”.
In the case of famous psychic Laurentia Pasaribu — popularly known as Mama Lauren, who died at on Monday night, May 17, 2010, the answer remains a mystery.
“Mama had always said: ‘Would I still be alive by the end of the year?’” said Beby Djenar, Lauren’s student and foster daughter. But during the last hours of her life, Beby went on, “She whispered to me, saying, ‘I’m done.’
“The last time I had eye contact with her, fresh tears were welling up,” she added.
Born in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on Jan. 23, 1932, Lauren died at 78, at the PGI Cikini Hospital in Central Jakarta, after fighting heart and lung problems. The fortune teller started to show signs of ailing health last year. So early this year, Lauren decided to take a rest and stopped seeing clients.
“She had stopped practicing in early January [2010] after the doctor told her to take a break,” Beby said. “She entrusted me to handle her clients ever since,” she added.
Lauren became renowned as a personal advisor for celebrities and high-ranking officials. She was known for her “visions” of the country’s future – and most of all – celebrity lives. Every December or January, tabloids would publish her predictions over certain local issues, like politics and natural disasters. Her most-awaited predictions, however, were those surrounding the life of celebrities and famous people – she often predicted who would die that year, who would divorce from whom, and who would stay in prison.
Early 2004, for example, she predicted a young, rising actress would die at the end of the year because of an accident. That September, 24-year-old actress Sukma Ayu died after a comma from an accident in a night club. Not only that, Lauren also advised singer Krisdayanti to reveal her alleged affair with musician Tohpati, or she would risk her marriage with musician Anang Hermansyah. Two years after that prediction, Krisdayanti ended up divorcing Anang.
Lauren realized she had psychic abilities in 1939, when she was only seven years old and lived in the Netherlands. The woman with gypsy-blood running in her veins told Femina magazine about the day she heard voices while studying in her classroom, asking her to leave the school immediately. She told her school teachers about it, and was expelled from the class, after they accused her of telling lies. Young Lauren cried to her foster grandmother Antoineta as she came home, but was shocked later as she heard the news: “My school had just been bombed,” and hundreds of her friends and teachers had died in the tragedy, which was part of the Second World War events.
From that moment on, Lauren confessed, her friends started calling her a “witch”, and considered her as someone who brought curses everywhere she went.
“I realized that I was different [from others], especially as I ‘heard’ and ‘saw’ more and more events,” she said as quoted by the magazine. One of the events, she said, was the death of her Indonesian husband Natakusuma. Lauren said she knew her husband would pass away one year before he really died, in 1973.
After her husband’s death, Lauren met Hendrik Pasaribu, whom she described as her soul mate. When she first met Hendrik, Lauren said, she knew they were destined together although he was 15 years younger and already married to another woman. But years passed and they met again when Hendrik was a single man again. They tied the knot and stayed together for the next 28 years later, until the day Lauren passed away.
“My heart is broken,” said Hendrik, who had two children with Lauren. “She had always made my life beautiful and I could never forget her love for our family.”
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/05/19/indonesia%E2%80%99s-favorite-psychic-dies-78.html
