Someone I knew personally has died.
He was Dr. Alex Chao, a friend of my father’s, and the son of the late Professor Chao Tzee Cheng, our most famous forensic pathologist. I don’t know him as well as my father does, of course, but I can say that he was very intelligent, outgoing, warm-hearted and well-spoken. [ Read the Straits Times report. ]
Last evening we were shocked to hear that he was hospitalised, but had no idea that he was already dead by then.
This previous post of mine describes how I first met Alex and his lovely family, entirely by chance. I recall that his precocious little daughter (I presume it was the older one, Beatrice) was happily dancing around the dinner table and we were all applauding her on.
The day I missed Shin Dee’s birthday bash, was the day I last saw the doctor and his mother, as we were all attending the wake of a university lecturer who taught many doctors, including my own father. He actually recognised me, and waved cheerfully to my family from another table, as he was getting up to leave. That was about a month or two ago.
Sometimes you never really know when you’re going to go, so make the most out of life while you can.
Note: Alex Chao’s cause of death hasn’t been confirmed yet, so I can’t say if it was caused by the SARS virus, or Dengue fever as originally diagnosed.
[Update: It was SARS.]