This long-time school mate was Khoo Chuan Keat. He was actually quite a prominent fellow in the business and financial circle: a former senior executive director of PricewaterhouseCoopers for many years until his retirement about three or four years back.
Chuan Keat had so many ideas, the latest of which was setting up a company called Eden-on-the-Park to provide the first Integrated Seniors Lifestyle and Care Residence Resort in the country. The development provides senior citizens with resort-style living in luxury apartment suites and bungalow villas with aged care facilities right next to them. After having set up the first development in Kuching, his company was not looking to expand to other areas of the country, not less Penang. Chuan Keat had been talking to me and his other old school friends about this project. We were all pretty excited.
So the news of him passing away completely shocked us. He was only 64 years old last December. Only one month younger than me. But nobody knew that he wasn't in the best of health. One year ago, he was photographed at a gathering of old school mates in Kuala Lumpur and he looked perfectly all right. But looks can deceive. Within the year, he had been diagnosed with blood cancer. Undergoing treatment and rehabilitation. And we still didn't know about it. He demanded privacy and he got it till his dying day.
I last communicated with Chuan Keat through whatsapp in December. We wanted to talk but he said that he was a bit tired and would contact me later. For several weeks after that, there was silence from his end. Then came Chinese New Year. And then Chap Goh Meh approached. I was thinking to myself: why not I call him instead? After the Chap Goh Meh festivities, I decided. But before I could do so, the message came that he had passed away. So there I was, shocked and dumbfounded. Anyway, it would have been impossible to speak to him already. He was already in intensive care at a hospital, and in a coma. His mobile phone already switched off by his wife.
During our secondary school days, Chuan Keat and I were members of the Chess Club. In 1972 when we were both in Upper Six, he was the president and I was the secretary. That year was the heady year for chess in the country. Not only were we gripped by the world championship match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer, 1972 was also the year that the Penang Chess Association (PCA) was formed, the Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Pulau Pinang (MSSPP) and Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Malaysia (MSSM) chess competitions were introduced and the Penang Students' Schools Chess Council (PSSCC) was dissolved. We were in the midst of these local chess activities.
After Form Six, we went our separate ways. I went to Kuala Lumpur for my studies and he headed to England. But we still kept in touch. He used to send me those girlie magazines from overseas and somehow, they managed to evade our local postal authorities. Until one day, I suppose the postal people got wise to those big brown envelopes arriving from overseas and began opening and confiscating them. 😆
I also remember him for three more things. One, even as a corporate guy, he kept his hair longish and tied up at the back of his head into a sort of ponytail. An obvious non-conformist. I had always wondered what his clients thought about that. Second, Chuan Keat was a judge for those Miss Malaysia/Miss Universe contests at Genting Highlands in the 1990s. He always talked about them but curiously, he never offered to bring us to see the contests. At least, not to me, anyway. Would he have done so if I had asked. Sadly, I wouldn't know now. And third, about 10 years ago, he had set up a wine shop in Penang called D'niece and invited all his old school mates together for a drinking party.
Those were indeed the good old days with Chuan Keat. He shall be greatly missed.
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