THE blind community lost a
true and dear friend last week.
Francis Chan – better known as
Chan Chen to his close friends – passed away on Monday in Kuala Lumpur. It
happened when he was taking a short afternoon rest.
Though the 64-year old’s death
was peaceful and quick, the hearts and lives he touched throughout his life were
many and diverse.
No one probably recalls and
appreciates Chan Chen more than Yam Tong Woo.
The 58-year old who became blind
four years ago says a big part of his acceptance of his newfound disability was
through Chan Chen’s support.
“Adapting to the world of the
blind was not at all easy as I struggled to find my way about, learnt to read Braille
and so on,” explained Yam who hails from Sungei Buloh.
“I first met Chan Chen at a nearby
coffee shop during my training session break,” said Yam.
“Chan Chen’s favourite was ‘kopi oh kau’, (extra strong black coffee).
He was a great talker and always cheerful about things and whom I could talk to
about virtually anything under the sun from inspirational verses to life,
health, and current political issues”, added Yam.
Yam went on to say that Chan
Chen was blind for most of his life. Despite this, he never allowed his
condition to hinder his passion to help others, particularly, in helping the
adult blind.
“It was due to his unselfish
caring attitude that led both me and my sighted wife to also become actively
involved in helping the blind community such as offering emotional counselling
and getting adult blind individuals and their caregivers to accept and adapt into
the new blind world.”
Chan Chen loved to travel. He would
often go to other towns to visit blind individuals and see how they were coping
with their lives.
During his visits, he was always
ready to offer tips and suggestions on how they could overcome obstacles and
live with their blindness.
One of Chan Chen’s favourite
strategies is to introduce as many blind persons as he could to each other.
Yam said that Chan Chen always
believed that interactions with one another – learning from each other about
their personal experiences with handicap – is the best way towards successful
living with a disability.
“There were many times when Chan
and I would discuss our private ‘case studies’, as it were and devise newer
approaches to help blind individuals with depression to health problems.
“One of the reasons why Chan
Chen was able to attract people is because he was always jovial and would keep
people in stitches with his jokes,” Yam pointed out.
“One of Chan Chen’s favourite
mottos to live by was ‘Yesterday is history, tomorrow is anyone’s guess and
today is now and what we make of it’.”
There are some terrific classic
tales of Chan Chen’s early life.
One of his memorable ones was
when he moved from Johor to KL to find employment.
Chan Chen couldn’t speak Cantonese;
only Hokkien. One day while ordering a Coke, he also asked for a little salt to
go with his drink.
He held up his glass of Coke and
asked the coffee shop owner for some salt, saying ‘yiam’ (meaning ‘salt’ in Hokkien).
The shop owner understood it as “yam”
(meaning ‘drink’ in Cantonese.)
The confusion went on for a few
minutes until another customer, realising what the problem was about, pointed
it out to them.
Everyone had a good laugh over
it after that.
Not only did Chan Chen do the
needful to become fluent in Cantonese after that but over his lifetime he learnt
to speak a number of languages and dialects that include Tamil, Mandarin and
some Japanese.
He was an ardent listener to BBC
World service radio from London.
“Chan Chen continued to light up
the lives of both the blind and the sighted that he met and got to know during
his lifetime,” said Yam.
“The blind community loved his hand-brailled
yearly calendars where he took pains to include important dates for the blind,
school term breaks, religious festivals, and state holidays.
I also dearly miss the Braille
lessons he gave me in return of my teaching him the computer.
I am glad that I had played a
part in his picking up some computer skills in order to read some e-books and
operate his laptop to play his favourite CDs and DVDs.
Upon his retirement from the
Malaysian Association for the Blind, some years back, other than the voluntary
outreach activities, he was also a part time massage therapist and could assess
and advice his customers about their health condition from his touch during a
therapeutic massage session – another one of his incredible talents.
Chan Chen also travelled to
Australia and Vietnam. His memories about them were as clear as day.
He could describe in detail the
places he had visited and seen, including an unforgettable scene, standing on
the ridge of a cliff in Hanoi and looking out to Hainan Island, China, across
the seas.
On a holiday to Australia, upon
arrival at the immigration counter, an Australian immigration officer asked
him, `You come to Australia ‘to die’ (today) and he said, “No, I come here for
a holiday”.
That’s Chan Chen for you!
Farewell, my true and dear friend.
Chan Chen leaves behind his wife
Cecilia and daughter Patricia.
THE END
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