Old friends, memory brushes the same years

IT was 70 years ago when we first met at a ramshackle classroom, built on ‘belian’ (ironwood) stilts and had ‘attap’ (thatched) roofing, standing atop MacDougall Hill at the road that still bears its name today.

Edward Chai and I were six at the time, and our first teacher was Mrs Brandah.

We had both gone through six years of primary schooling, followed by another seven years at St Thomas’ Secondary School, which we left in 1969.

After that, he went into the Police Field Force, where he served for a few years before leaving to run a catering business.

He stayed on for a while before deciding to venture to Canada in 1977.

By 1982, he had relocated to Taipei, Taiwan where he kicked off a wondrous and exciting journey into the world of finance, real-estate and direct selling – with a success beyond most of our imagination.

On Jan 9 this year, Eddy – as he is known these days – reached out to me, wanting me to help organise a reunion in Kuching for those from the ‘Class of 1967-1969’.

At that time, he had not returned to Kuching in over 40 years – circumstances beyond his control had kept him away.

So it was a real ‘triumphant return of a native son’ sort of event that I had to put together with a few others.

Eddy offered to host and sponsor the whole event, and that we were to invite everyone whom had gone to the school between the years of 1956 and 1969.

I do not know how the situation is nowadays, but during our time, it was quite common to have inter-class transfers, both sideways (to other classes as in A,B or C; or ahead or behind in terms of years).

So there were quite a few classmates whom we schooled with for just a year or two.

Eddy had felt bad about not having attended any of the reunions that we had held over the last 20 years, as his last visit to Kuching was in 1984.

I was, of course, happy to help with the hosting.

Several of us formed an organising committee.

We booked the venue and got the word out very quickly.

Luckily, these days it is a lot easier with emails and social media like Facebook as well as WhatsApp.

Nevertheless, the powers of persuasion, as well as the nags and reminders had also helped!

The last major reunion we had was in 2009, which was our 40th, and had involved another class that was one year our senior – a joint one with the ‘1968’ers’.

This was an odd time to hold such a big reunion, as it was not quite our 60th, which would only be in 2029, but the thinking behind it was that we should not wait too long, as age and mobility concerns are now serious issues for many of us.

It is also not as easy to travel on your own once you get to our age.

We also had to say our fond farewells to quite a number of former classmates since our last reunion, so our head count has been reducing by the year; nay, even by the month!

The food-and-beverage head of The Sarawak Club, my good friend Mikolden Legem, had mentioned to me that it was a rare sight, and a rather significant effort, that we had managed to gather altogether 70 guests for this a grand reunion, more so the fact that we are all now in our mid-70s.

On March 8, 69 former schoolmates and their family members had turned up at our 57th reunion held at the Hornbill Restaurant of The Sarawak Club.

In his speech, Eddy regaled us with the story of an early childhood spent in Kuching, surrounded by a rather large family, who had many prominent citizens.

Eddy did well in school, especially in sports: track events and swimming.

He also made school prefect, and was popular – an overall good student.

He had decided that right after his A-Level, he would join the Police Field Force where he served for five years.

He then left to pursue private business after a fortuitous meeting with a famous and very successful local businessman who had backed him up financially.

Eddy excelled in this business venture.

In 1977, he decided to migrate to Canada where he established a food-and-beverage enterprise.

That was to last till he was bitten by the travel bug and decided to go to Taiwan, where he met his wife Grace. They are blessed with a son and a daughter – the latter, Hannah, accompanied him in this homecoming visit.

Having led one of the biggest international direct-marketing companies for a few years, he decided to launch his own brand called ‘Diamond Life’, which was a huge success story throughout many parts of Asia.

Today, Eddy is still actively involved in his businesses encompassing finance, real-estate and marketing.

At 76, he has yet to call it a day.

I always remember this quote from Shakespeare from ‘Twelfth Night’: “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

Among my classmates whom I have had the pleasure of going to school with are many who are household names, prominent in their own fields; some whose successes and achievements have been acknowledged; others less high-profile, but equally as impressive.

Quite a number of our beloved classmates have also left us for the great beyond over the past few years, here and overseas.

Our fond memories of them will endure.

That Sunday night event recorded a good turnout.

We had a good time, and reminded ourselves of the days of yore – just happy to be able to socialise once again with each other, even if just for a few hours.

We promised to meet up again at the next reunion, whenever that might be – as always, with our school motto ‘Aim Higher’ in our minds.

I leave us with my favourite Simon and Garfunkel song, ‘Old Friends’ written in 1968, to be found on their hit album ‘Bookends’:

“Can you imagine us years from today,“Sharing a park bench quietly?“How terribly strange to be 70,“Old friends, memory brushes the same years,“Silently sharing the same fears.”