Orbituary

*wow* This is harder than I thought.

I lost a dear friend yesterday. An ex-colleague who I've known and worked with for the past 4 years, and who'd become a friend. Completely unexpected and coz of that, extremely shocking news of his passing. Ex-colleagues showed up in droves last night at the wake, people I haven't seen in the last 2-3 years, looking absolutely dazed by the news. Very few words were exchanged, just knowing silence - of shock and of loss. I don't think its something we'd get over anytime soon.

William, was one of my colleagues when I started my first job. Specifically, he was the energetic young chap who sat in the seat next to mine, always there with a ready smile and a helping hand. We got along and worked well together (occasional disagreements wrt to work here and there), and shared a lot of good times just laughing, joking, making fun of each other, praying and encouraging one another. We even tried to start a fellowship group at work once, although that died after a while. I remembered his frustration with work as the organisation evolved, and eventually him striking out to run his own business for a while to get away from office politics and to try and find a better livelihood for his young family.

He was your super "da hao nan ren" type of guy - warm, sincere, kind, dependable, earnest yet fun-loving. A dedicated husband and doting father. He was well-loved by all in the workplace, was everyone's friend/buddy. Even my then-CEO particularly liked him. I don't know one person who doesn't like him because there was nothing to not like about him. My fondest memory of him will always be how he'd play the theme song from Winter Sonata every morning as his 'national anthem', partly because he really liked the Korean series and the song, but partly also coz it irritated the living daylights out of me as his cubicle neighbour. He relished the moments when I'd roll my eyes in disdain at his music choice. I also remember how he used to "rescue" me from difficult clients at events, angry customers who'd insist on scolding me for hours on end - William would make up a white lie about Boss wanting to see me urgently to get me out of the situation, sometimes taking my place in front of the scolding customer.

And to think I just saw him a couple of months ago - we caught up for lunch when I noticed he started 'lurking' around my office building again, before I left my last job. We ate, laughed, shared our lives and our fears. We even joked about his "new eyes" with lasik surgery. Man, those times were good..... but things are different now. There's an inevitable tinge of sadness that I didn't spend enough time with him in the last couple of months.

Goodbye William, my dear dear friend. You will be dearly missed.