SINGAPORE — Footballer Kyra Taylor was back at Jalan Besar Stadium on a recent Friday, where a few weeks earlier she had experienced a giddying high followed all too soon by deep sadness.

On July 16, she made her debut for the Lionesses, the Singapore women's national football team, in a match against Macau, scoring a brilliant goal just minutes after getting on the field as a substitute.

Unbeknown to the 18-year-old at the time, just before the game, her grandfather had suffered a brain aneurysm — where an artery balloons and fills with blood. It then ruptured and the 71-year-old slipped into a coma when the match was happening.

The teenager did not know because her mother withheld the news from her and told her only after the game. Her grandfather died two days later.

Now, Ms Taylor was being interviewed by TODAY in the lounge at Jalan Besar Stadium, three days before departing to Scotland for further studies.

Bursting into playful banter with her best friend and mother who were in the same room during our interview, you would never have guessed that she had experienced that roller-coaster of emotion right here just a month earlier.

That game with the Lionesses ended with the national team winning 9-0 against Macau. Ms Taylor scored the final goal in the last 10 minutes.

SINGAPORE — Footballer Kyra Taylor was back at Jalan Besar Stadium on a recent Friday, where a few weeks earlier she had experienced a giddying high followed all too soon by deep sadness.

On July 16, she made her debut for the Lionesses, the Singapore women's national football team, in a match against Macau, scoring a brilliant goal just minutes after getting on the field as a substitute.

Unbeknown to the 18-year-old at the time, just before the game, her grandfather had suffered a brain aneurysm — where an artery balloons and fills with blood. It then ruptured and the 71-year-old slipped into a coma when the match was happening.

The teenager did not know because her mother withheld the news from her and told her only after the game. Her grandfather died two days later.

Now, Ms Taylor was being interviewed by TODAY in the lounge at Jalan Besar Stadium, three days before departing to Scotland for further studies.

Bursting into playful banter with her best friend and mother who were in the same room during our interview, you would never have guessed that she had experienced that roller-coaster of emotion right here just a month earlier.

That game with the Lionesses ended with the national team winning 9-0 against Macau. Ms Taylor scored the final goal in the last 10 minutes.

 SINGAPORE — Footballer Kyra Taylor was back at Jalan Besar Stadium on a recent Friday, where a few weeks earlier she had experienced a giddying high followed all too soon by deep sadness.

On July 16, she made her debut for the Lionesses, the Singapore women's national football team, in a match against Macau, scoring a brilliant goal just minutes after getting on the field as a substitute.

Unbeknown to the 18-year-old at the time, just before the game, her grandfather had suffered a brain aneurysm — where an artery balloons and fills with blood. It then ruptured and the 71-year-old slipped into a coma when the match was happening.

The teenager did not know because her mother withheld the news from her and told her only after the game. Her grandfather died two days later.

Now, Ms Taylor was being interviewed by TODAY in the lounge at Jalan Besar Stadium, three days before departing to Scotland for further studies.

Bursting into playful banter with her best friend and mother who were in the same room during our interview, you would never have guessed that she had experienced that roller-coaster of emotion right here just a month earlier.

That game with the Lionesses ended with the national team winning 9-0 against Macau. Ms Taylor scored the final goal in the last 10 minutes.