Ken Orrill...Goodbye my dear friend....

As usual in a case like this it is just too difficult to write..And because I felt that it is important I put these thoughts in writing for all to read,I am forcing myself to write this... Well it all start like this... I was surfing the net late at night last Monday and as usual got lost of times in cyberspace.. As I was in the midst of reading an interesting site..I notice an incoming email from my Gmail Messenger..I glimpsed at it and saw a message from the address of my dear friend from the UK...I quickly open the Gmail window and look for the mail and this time the mail is not from the person himself but from his daughter...I read this mail..And suddenly felt the pang of sadness and sank on my seat feeling so sad..That follow with been depressed...I felt really bad and sick with the news of the passing of my dear friend Ken Orill or I normally call him as Paken...I froze in front of my monitor and just do not know what to do...My spouse was already sound asleep...So I thought that I shall wait when she is awake and inform her of this news. I then continue to sit there reflecting of the great moments We have had together during all the years of our friendship, whenever He is here in Malaysia or at the time when We spend our holiday in the UK..With him traveling in south England...So many memories came to my mind and it makes me cry the passing of this friend of mine..I took a pause and took a book to read and left the computer idle.. I sat in front of my TV...It is past midnight and watch the news on BBC, CNN and the other channels, flicking the channels, just watch with my mind somewhere else...I continue to feel the pang of sadness that I had never felt before whenever some friends of my generation pass away...But this time it is different..This friend is special...He die in a land far away in the UK and here I am in the east in my country Malaysia mourning the death of a friend, once a complete stranger..Well at this age loosing friend in death is expected but then with this news of his depart I simply felt different...

I just sat there in front of the TV with a book in my hand and whilst away the time, and replay the scene of the good times that we have had in all those years the we had known each other...I have written before of how we met in 1989 on a ferry ship [Ferry Malaysia] that ply the states of Sarawak, Sabah and the Peninsular Malaysia....Me and the Family was on the ship and He was there alone...Two strangers met on the China sea and became friend and from there on we continue to keep in touch first by letters and then by emails...He would come to Malaysia regularly and stayed for months at time. Most of his time here he would stayed at his foster son's home in PJ.. And He would call and we would meet, have lunch, tour the city and spend the time at my home sometime the whole day,with my spouse preparing lunch, tea or coffee...My home was like his and he love it and in every email he would mentioned my spouse and send greeting to her...The visits and the email kept us close, we joke, exchange serious thoughts. He read a lot and at time I am amazed with the knowledge that he had accumulated all these years... And since I start to write blog, he would read it regularly, sometime I write about him, when I notice the email slow in coming...I knew he was sick, so maybe he was is hospital or just resting and had not the time to write...Anyway when my thought is with him, I would get an email, a long one at time..So it was like that all the time...Last year He said he was rather sick and once well would try to make a visit to Malaysia, a country he love, for he was here OHM Service as a soldier when the country Malaya was a British colony.. He did service fighting the communist insurgent in Malaya and for that I told him time and again how grateful we were to those young British who were here, in a country infested with mosquito fighting a common enemy, the communist...Well that is history but he kept coming here year after year and at one time was contemplating of settling here for good and I offered to provided him the roof if ever he did that...Well whenever He is here we met...So our meeting each other actually never end...In the real world and in cyberspace...

And last year he wrote that He could not make it this year. I knew He was real sick and once that confirmed that he could not come to Malaysia last year...I pack a parcel of things He like and posted it...And then an email arrived saying that in his word.."The Santa Claus arrived late this year"..He was happy and delighted to received the parcel of gift and of course I was delighted too....Happy that He got the parcel a week after I posted it from Kuala Lumpur...As usual we kept emailing and then I notice that the email began to be delay in arriving... But I was not that concern for I knew he was sick and once He is OK, he would write again..And than this email came. Suddenly I lost a great friend..Call to the Lord...A person that I shall remember the rest of my life...A really Good friend for I always treasure my friendship...Once He told me that our chance meeting on that Ferry Ship was a sort of a destiny...He say it in Malay " adakah pertemuan kita itu satu takdir"..He knew how to read and write in Malay and I laugh at time the Malay he wrote but then it is like that with us old folks, some things that we say could just make us laugh..And in that it colored our life as well...So it was a destiny that we met on that Ferry Ship [Ferry Malaysia] on the China Sea and now He is no more with us...Call to the Lord...So Paken, Goodbye my dear friend, I know you had a great life..I pray that your soul Rest in Peace and that you would find a place in Heaven...Amen.

In Her email to me His daughter Maxine, among other this wrote this:-

Dear friend,

I am sorry to have to tell you that my father Ken Orrill, died last Friday.... He died peacefully in his sleep.......
His Funeral will take place on Tuesday 21st March at Gilrose Crematorium, Groby Road Leicester at 1.00 p m and a reception at The Ale Wagon Charles street Leicester after the Funeral.
Any floral tributes to Mildred's Undertakers, Leicester Road Wigston.

My condolence to Her and the Family....