I’m not a big believer of airing my personal thoughts online.

But I thought this is the least my grandfather deserves, seeing as I arrived too late for to say what I wanted to say.

My grandfather was an affable man, generally quiet and reserved due to his dictator of a wife, my grandmother. When he is happy, you can see it in his eyes, the gleam of pure joy when his simple enjoyments in life are attained - photography and his precious hair.

He was the one who taught me how to do my first side parting. Ah Gong as I loved to call him and even mistakenly spelt it so when I gave him a handmade birthday card when I was younger, gave me my first old school orange comb and taught me how to spray water on my hair and comb it neatly. He was a very vain man and he was always worried about how his hair looked, even in the last few weeks of his life. Whenever we said his hair looks good, so handsome, he will always give a contented smile.

He also loved photography, both being behind the camera and in the photo. He still obsesses over the Pentax camera my dad and I gave him many years ago. Just a week back, he was asking me if we could fix it. Every time he knows he will be in a photo, he will definitely look into the camera and give his goofy lopsided smile. Just today, when we went through his things, we realised he has a box filled with photographs hidden in a box due to his wife hating photos being displayed. Every single photo was laminated with care.

On other random notes, he also enjoys long walks, dressing up smartly and dutifully keeping track of 4D.

Ah Gong passed away on 7th December 3.25pm, but I only reached at 3.35pm to see his lifeless body with his sunken eyes opened blankly. This 10 minutes is going to haunt me for a long time.

Rest in peace.