.: Where Do You Want To Go, Uncle Lawrence? :.

I remember Uncle Lawrence (we call him Ku Kong in hokkien) as this animated, active extremely cheerful old man. He's my maternal grandma's eldest brother.

I have been visiting him at his house in Kepong every Chinese New Year as far as I can remember. He was the friendliest, most jovial person I have ever met. And he is so healthy and active, that at the age of 75 plus, he is still cycling around in his bicycle to get to places. At that age, he was still cooking for himself, washing his own clothes, etc. I remembered there was once where we went over to his place and he cooked the absolutely most superb chicken curry (almost as par with the best curry I had - albeit my grandma's).

One of the few fond memories I have of him was him wanting to sing at his grandson's wedding, and boy, does Uncle Lawrence love to sing. His eldest daughter (the groom's mom) restricted him to only ONE song and he was warned not to sing more, even tho the crowd encourage or asked for an encore. I can't remember if he did or not, but somehow my memory seem to remember that he sang "Burung Kakak Tua". Then again, I could have been mistaken and confused that for the teasing he got when he sang that song at another wedding.

I also remembered his telephone conversation with my brother - both being blur, resulting in a miscommunication that was only resolved a few days later. Boy, did the whole family laughed at him and my brother over that incident.

That was years ago, but a year plus back, he was put into an old folks home in Kepong when he was beginning to become senile and couldn't take care of himself. It was a sad that he had to stay there, but based on my own personal experience of what my family members had to endure when taking care of my late great-grandmother, I understood the reasons why his children made that difficult decision.

I did not visit him the recent Chinese New Year, but my mom and my aunt did. They say he was looks well, tho he has became more quiet and less chatty.

I heard the conversation between his daughter and my grandma yesterday.

Known for his inability to sit still and always wanting to jalan-jalan; his son-in-law asked him a couple of weeks back

"Uncle Lawrence, where do you want to go?"

To which he replied "To heaven"

And there is where he is now……

In loving memories of Ku Kong Lawrence that passed away on Saturday, 27th June 2009, at the age of 85.