Goodbye alex.

I was too late to say my goodbye. His body was already wrapped up in white cloth and was laid on the ubiquitous hospital bed in the open ward at GH;  I stared at it for the longest time trying to put in perspective our friendship that had spanned almost two decades. He was an enigma of sorts. 

Completely secretive about his personal life and activities; this man was tight lipped like a clam. He was his usual evasive self when I wanted to meet with him a few weeks earlier saying he did not want to meet in our usual haunts as he was now on a ‘healthy’ diet and lost some considerable weight. The truth was he had been diagnosed with some colon cancer and did not opt for surgery as he would have had to carry around a ‘bag’ with him all the time. So he decided on alternative therapy.

Earlier that day, his wife had message me from his phone in a desperate moment to ask for 'prayer' as he was being admitted into the hospital in a critical condition. Apparently he had some bleeding (internal) that led to further complications. Up to that point I had no inkling he was even sick.  Even though at one point we were almost meeting weekly, but the past year has been mostly phone conversations.

It was an ‘odd’ friendship to say the least. We had the least of things in common, our personalities clashed most of the time, but yet due to circumstances,  (he was also a real estate agent)  and geography ( we both happened to  live 5 mins  from each other in Puchong ) our paths crossed again.  Perhaps the only thing which we had in common was our Christian faith. We had some good discussions about spiritual matters. Yet, even in that area, we had long disagreements on the subject of GRACE of God.  He was adamant I was treading on dangerous ground with what he called the Hyper Grace message and I, knowing exactly where he was coming from was always trying to ‘enlighten’ him.

Almost ten years ago, we had worked in the same real estate agency in Bangsar; the last we spoke (then), did not end well.  There were some misunderstandings that took place. I for one would never think our paths would ever cross again, much less we would be spending times together. By chance one day  I spotted him at a Tesco supermarket in Puchong , after a decade of absence the ‘friendship’ rekindled again.

At some point in his sketchy life, he was recruited into the Special Branch (Malaysian secret service); he was the archetypal secret police character, disarmingly innocent yet evasive, never giving away a thing. One would never think he was  special branch material.   But he was also a Christian, whose encounter with Jesus was real enough he was once enrolled in Bible School Seminary (verified to be true!)  to be trained as a pastoral worker. Yeah it was quite a combination about him to process (a classic enigma ).

So alex in spite of it all , I always found you interesting and you had a real sense of humor; we had some funny moments didn't we? You were always working to close some elusive 'big' deal at the behest of some ‘Datuk’  who held the contract. But sad to say, your deals were never concluded (or if they did, you never told me)  It was a shame because you had spoken passionately your dreams to finance an orphanage, and to fund a church in Johor; your heart was always in the right place.

Soon it will be an anniversary of your passing and I have to say I miss the times when we would meet regularly,  our theological debates, your views on our local politics, our rooting for Man United during the EPL season, and the favorite teams during the World Cup (next one in 2018)

or just sitting trying to make sense of the world around us.

Sometimes when i'm on my way home early, I find myself thinking if i should give you a call and have some 'chai' together.. yup I do miss your strange company and  I am glad our paths did crossed again. We’ll be meeting sometime in the future again. But this time we won’t be arguing about ‘hyper grace’ cos by then you’ll know I was right all along.

Bye alex.

Here is my favorite teaser picture of him with my creative input of course.