and so our little nation has been plunged into a sudden state of mourning…

even my daddy, a man of few words and even fewer emotions, upon hearing the shocking news, displayed a downcast, solemn look and could only mutter that he was feeling “sad” – very sad indeed – because Mr Ong was … “one of our Presidents” and because (with a slight pause), he was “an old boy of Chinese High”… :’( daddy then sat in the dark munching his biscuits slowly and thoughtfully… My brother too, speaking with awkward pauses as if making sure he wouldn’t be seen as being too “womanly emotional” in his words, was sad because this man was simply a “good man”. What a splendid example of an individual who has so successfully exemplified the ideal of having lived a meaningful life, that "…..when (he) came to die even the undertaker was sorry." --- Mark Twain” … don’t we all remember how he single-handedly took on and questioned our mighty government during his presidency tenure on the amount of information they should release on the use of the nation’s reserves? There can be no greater amount of respect accorded to this man… who has yet amazingly never left his touch with the common man in the street..

"And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." --- Abraham Lincoln

we are all feeling really sad indeed