Missing you, dear Tiong...

My brother Tiong (12 years my senior) succumbed to his long illness today. Angie and I have been his caregivers for over a decade...

He was the handsomest of the five brothers and although he remained single (the only unmarried sibling), he was a caring and generous uncle to his nephews and nieces. He was the only sibling to have studied Latin (at ACS; Earnest Lau was a young teacher there at the time) and he made my late father proud of him when he too became a "Shellman" at Pulau Bukom. He was the most filial of sons to my late parents. With his death, I am now the surviving sibling in Singapore.

I am so glad that before and after his health started to grow poorer, he joined Angie and I (and the girls when they were young) to vacations in places like Europe and Australia. I will never forget how, to get to the Pinnacles in Western Australia, we had to hire a light plane.

He was a stroke victim by then. How we heaved and pushed to get him through a narrow door to get him aboard the little single-engine propeller-driven aeroplane at the small airport! I can't recall how, after we landed on rough desert ground, we got him down  and how -- after gawking at the Pinnacles -- we then got him back up again. I'd do it anytime for you again, dear bro. We miss you but we also know you have now joined How Lui, Tee Chuan and How Eng.

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I won't be blogging for the next few days.