The month of November had been particularly strange for me, genealogy wise that is.
First, out of the blue, a gentleman by the name Eric Djie (Chee/Xu) contacted me to enquire whether I am one of the Malacca [I prefer the old spelling :)] Chees. Eric is half Chinese/half Dutch currently residing in Xiamen, Fujian Province. Then later in the month, David Ong from Singapore emailed me about the Cheongs. His mother is a Cheong from the Singapore line of the Cheong Koh Boon family of Malacca, of which I am a descendant.
It was certainly a boost for my ongoing family tree project.
All this aside, after several exchange of emails David and I confirmed that we had met ech other at Uncle Harry's wake 11 years ago, 4th. December 1997. David was a dear friend of Uncle Harry. He wrote a poem to read as his eulogy at Uncle Harry's mass. Yesterday he gave me a copy.
While writing this blog, I realised that today (4/12/08) is the eleventh anniversary of our dear Uncle Harry's passing on. I thought it would be appropriate to publish David's poem here -
“MY DEAR UNCLE HARRY……”
“I thank my God whenever I think of you.” (Philippians 1:3)
My dear Uncle Harry,
I was so sorry to hear today
That you had died yesterday.
It was only last night
Fancy, only last night,
That I had taken out
That chunky gold and diamond ring
You had passed on to me.
And I had then reminisced on those
Wonderful old times we had shared
With Bobby and Robert
And everyone else
All those many years ago.
My dear Uncle Harry,
I remember the last time we met
At mass at St Peter & Paul
You said you were really so sorry
My Papa was so terribly ill
And you gave your kind regards
And good wishes
For his speedy recovery.
Instead, it was my Papa who called me today,
To tell me that you had died.
My dear Uncle Harry,
Of course you know
That we shall all miss you
And our endless banter
At the little booknook
At St Peter & Paul
Always in the Peranakan patois
Always about all sorts of nonsense
And funny jibes and stories that
We all laughed to tears about
Before and after mass
At St Peter and Paul.
My dear Uncle Harry,
We are all so very sorry
You’ve had to leave us so soon.
But then, we should not despair
Because ”the trumpet shall sound
And the dead shall be raised
Incorruptible
And we shall all be changed”.
Therefore, dear Uncle Harry,
What more can we say?
That you have not laboured in vain?
That you have now put on immortality?
That the corruptible has put on incorruption?
Goodbye then, Uncle Harry.
Adieu to you
‘Til we meet again
And laugh and banter together
Once more.
Fare thee well my dear Uncle Harry
My Brother, My friend
Fare thee well my dear Uncle Harry.
“O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?
O GRAVE, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY?”
David Ong
5 December 1997
(Dedicated to and in Loving Memory of Mr. Harry Chi)
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5 comments:
Koh Lex, ...
that was really beautiful. You know, for some reason, I had been thinking of U.Harry too and typical of me, i'd forgotten when his death anniversary was. Reading this surely brought some old memories for me too. U.Harry's "budak" will always be so vividly etched in my brain.
I will direct che Ee and che Toy to this site.
Che Ee, Che Toy,... if you're reading this... we're all remembering dad at this time, the wonderful man that he will always be in our hearts and minds.
Pat
I can't believe its 11 yrs already. How time flies....
Lex, siapa itu David Ong? How come he gave the poem to you? And after 11 years now only we are reading the poem.
Fi, you remember the late Uncle Chee Seng from Singapore who use to visit us at Limbongan hse when Mak was alive. David is his wife's (auntie Keong Poh)nephew. Maybe you know their children, Spenser and Suzanne Chan.
According to David he wrote the poem to read as his eulogy at Uncel Harry's mass. However, in his own words, "Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to read it at the funeral mass, as the priest was in a kinda hurry and I had also, not scheduled it in the Mass programme."
Yes, I do remember Uncle Chee Seng and Suzanne and Spencer. But I don't think I've met this David Ong. But that was indeed a beautiful poem. Hope Toy and Ee will be able to read it.
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