The Dearly Departed

A friend of mine passed away a couple of days ago.

He took care of me, in a fashion, when I was a blur Sec 1 kid and he was a relatively wise and elderly Sec 4. Of course, being a GEP, his idea of ‘taking care of a junior’ involved a fair bit of sarcasm and a lot of philosophical discussion but that’s who we are as a demographic, I guess.

He taught me bridge, hearts, how to make the AC anthem sound like something out of Castlevania. He introduced me to the Star Wars TCG, to the Wheel of Time and Weird Al Yankovic. In other words, he planted many of the seeds that sprouted to form integral parts of the present me. I’ll forever be grateful for that.

He was also one of the smartest people I knew. He was the epitome of what the GEP strove to identify and cultivate. He went on scholarship to Imperial and, upon returning, began to touch lives as a teacher. He only found out late last year that he had a congenital hereditary disease and even as he weakened throughout the year, he still made it a point to fulfill his professional role to the best of his ability. I’ve heard that when he became too weak to walk, he still held court in a wheelchair, a la Hawking but sans voice synthesizer. Mad Propz.

Goodbye Charles. Thanks for everything. I’m not grieving for the fact that you’ve left us, but because you’ve left us too early.

-Marc