This is for you, Sui Yoke

I passed your old house today. The one you used to live in with your nanny, or nai ma. I suddenly wondered where you are now, how you are, whether life has been kind to you these 6 years after we left primary school together.

I hoped I told you last time how good a friend you were. Although not the best student, you were always loyal to me and someone with a lot of joy and laughter even though your circumstances were nothing to laugh about. You always told me I would succeed. I really wanted you to be able to do well in life too. I wish you would just have worked harder, especially in English as it was your weakest subject. It really isn't that hard to pass the English UPSR exam. But perhaps it was for you.

After we went our separate ways in secondary school, I didn't keep in touch with you. That was selfish of me. I guess I just wanted to leave all of that behind. But I shouldn't have left you. Even though the gap between us was widening because our plans for the future and ideas about life were so different. I hope I never made a foolish promise that we'd be friends forever or something like that. Or else I'd have broken a promise as well.

I heard a year later that you'd mixed with the wrong crowd in secondary school, that you were becoming more naughty and out of control there. In Form 3, I think, I heard you dropped out of school. That shocked me. You really should have stayed, but who am I to dictate the choices you make in life? I don't have all the answers for you anyway. Though in Standard 6 I always advised you to study hard, so you'd have a better future...

Wherever you are now, Sui Yoke, I earnestly pray that you are safe. That you are happy. That you will not be exploited or hurt by anyone because of your trusting, happy-go-lucky nature. It's a dangerous world out there. God keep his angels around you to protect you. Keep close to Him, this Heavenly Father whom you got to know in primary school, the Father who loves you millions of times more than the earthly father you never met.

This is for you, Sui Yoke. A friend's heartfelt wishes and prayers, and I hope they will touch you wherever you are.