Chapter 10:Departure

during my 2yrs 'active retirement', where I decided to assume e role of a spectator instead of rower, I was occasionally bugged by diz guy who'd ask me when- when was it tt I'd go back to rowing. For ocbc. Or perhaps for alumnus.

As u noe, e reason why I chose to 'retire' and nt row for any teams was tt I needed time to come to terms with nostalgia. Nostalgia is a tricky emotion. It somehow prevents u frm embracing a new team. In short, I wanted to know come to terms with myself knowing tt I have graduated from NUS dragonboat (best days of my life) and will be moving on to smtg even better.

During my 2 years of 'active retirement', I'd occasionally bump into this guy. Sometimes at the lift lobby, other times when I'm heading for lunch. Also, when i went down as a supporter during races, I'd see him and he'd always ask me the 'when' question. "when are going to join oc dragons?"

My reply was always the same, "not yet.." Sometimes i'd reply, "my heart is still with my old team.."

I finally joined OCBC Dragons in August 2009. Hardly saw diz guy during our trgs coz he'd be trg with the alumnus. Besides, we knew he was juggling both work as well as studying for his Masters Degree.

As such, he chose to forgo OCBC trg and focus entirely on alumnus. However, he nv fail to reply to our thread of emails when it came to other non-trg related activities such as drinking, or charity drive (buy goods at NTUC to donate to Boy Brigade, less fortunate during christmas).

He remained involved and was even apologetic tt he was unable to commit to our trgs as a result of his commitments.

On Christmas Day, an unfortunate incident happened to him at Siloso beach, which landed him in SGH ICU. He was in coma and his brain was damaged.

Day after day, all of us went down to see him and talked to him, asking him to wake up and come back. I touched his hand and although i knew he was in a state of coma, i wished that somehow, he cld hear what was going on.

I said, "adrian..wake up! u bugged me into joining oc dragons. i haven't even got to row with u for a single race. u gotta wake up. u gotta row at least one race with me."

On New Years Day, 1/1/10 955am, he passed away.

Although I never got to know him on a personal level, his positive energy had always left an impression on me. His warmth is evident. Even his name bears semblance to his character.

His chinese name is Yang Kwang. He is no doubt a Yang Kwang Nan Hai.

I attended his wake on Saturday, 2/1/10. There were many of his jerseys tt were hung nicely. There were markers attached on each jersey so that we could pen down stuff for him.

On the NUS supporter tee shirt, I wrote, "NUS..Whoosh! OCBC..Sha!"

Thank you Adrain, for bringing me into the team. You will definitely be remembered.