Issue #14

Seasons Greetings and All the Best in 2012

23 December 2011

     As the new year is only a few days away I though it was time that I wrote about William 'Billy' Duncan. He was born on the 15th of June, 1949 in Scotland and by the time I met him on the 31st of December 2010 in Penang, Malaysia, he was living, albiet with no fixed address, in Kuantan, Malaysia. I thought, when I met him, that he lived in Penang and would later learn that he was so fond of Penang that he wanted to buy a house there. I wrote in my journal,"I don't remember any of their names but I hope they will contact me because it would be so fine to have friends in Penang."
Well, Billy did contact me. He called a couple of weeks later to say he would be in Singapore and would I like to meet up for drinks. Actually, I am denying his comic genius. What he said was,"Is this Miss Brandle? Would you like a gin Martini?" That line isn't as funny without the back story - so here it is.
     It was New Year's Eve 2010 and I was drinking a martini at Farquart's Bar at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel in Penang when Billy and his cohorts arrived. That was the only drink I paid for, and rest assured, I had many, many more! Later Billy would recount how he had never met a woman who could drink so much and was worried that if I died as a result of consuming such an awful lot of alcohol, he would be responsible. (I think I just heard my Canadian friends sniggering.) Photographs will attest that I was already pissed when we left the E & O. We continued on to other of Billy's favourite haunts. It was thanks to Billy that my New Year's Eve was such a blast!

     When he came to Singapore, he wanted me to go to lunch with Margaret Say, the Regional Director of the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council. He assured me that this dynamo was someone I should network with. I was unable to go to lunch the next day with him, Margaret, Simon and Jimmy. I never saw Billy with his eyes open again. A few weeks after his visit to Singapore I received an invitation to a dinner being sponsored by the USAPEEC. I smiled knowing that Billy must surely be behind it.

     I don't think that I have mentioned yet that Billy was a bit of a technophobe and he was proud that he couldn't be 'googled'. He wouldn't use Facebook or Twitter, wouldn't email or text but he would use the telephone and, as I found out, the fax machine (unless he got someone else to send his handwritten note by fax to me). In between the evening in Singapore, which by the way did not cost me a penny, and the arrival of the invitation by post, I received a fax. I had sent my non-techie friend a good, old-fashioned thank you note. I wrote it on hand-stencilled note paper that Bev Worthington had given me for Christmas long ago. Billy had been all over Asia so in my note to him I asked his opinion regarding different destinations such as Langkawi, Malaysia; Bali, Indonesia and Phuket, Thailand. He responded to my query by fax. Included on his fax was contact information for Armo; part friend, part guardian angel.

     I promptly prepared a response and faxed it back. And I waited. I didn't realize that the office fax had not successfully sent a fax since we had moved to the new office four months earlier. We thought we had resolved the fax problem when we discovered a month after moving that we hadn't received a single fax - not even the usual spate of junk faxes selling services to businesses. Apparently, we had only resolved the incoming part of the problem. After waiting and then waiting some more, I checked the machine and then tried several more times to send it again. Finally, I scanned it and sent it to Armo's email asking him to give it to Billy.

     I sent one of the cat cards my sister Pat gave me for Christmas one year to thank him for arranging the invitation and to tell him that I looked forward to seeing him again. I began formulating a plan whereby I would buy a stunning ensemble to wear to Carmen & Ramon's wedding and give it a 'dress rehearsal' at the USAPEEC dinner. I looked good! I stood gulping red wine, sucking in my tummy and trying not to sweat. I faced the entrance trusting that Billy would come striding in at any moment. Instead, a very tiny woman walked briskly toward me and speaking just as briskly asked, "Are you Billy's friend?" "He is in hospital in critical condition." "I don't know what happened, you should call Jimmy." She gave me her card and I gave her mine and then she was gone to be MC etc. on stage because she was hosting this event.

     I stood there absolutely stunned. I drank a couple more glasses of wine (here in Singapore a glass of house wine costs between 8 and 15 dollars so if it is free it would be foolish not to have a few) thinking that Simon would appear and clear up the mystery; fill in the gaps, as it were. When he didn't show, I decided to call him. He was just back from the Phillipines or New Zealand and had not heard a thing. I asked him to call Jimmy and let me know the details.

     By the time I reached home, Simon had forwarded a text from Jimmy written in uppercase, it read "IN ICU NOW. HE GOT LUNG INFECTION. HAVING RESPIRATORY DIFFICULTY. HE ALSO GOT MULTIPLE BRAIN ABSSESS (sic). HE IS IN COMA CONDITION RIGHT NOW. TKS JIMMY" In a state of confusion, I replied as though I was replying to Jimmy in Kuantan but, in fact, was sending to Simon in Singapore. I wrote, "Jimmy, tell him I want him to be well. Tell him that I want to dance with him. If you tell him, he will get better but you must believe!" The next day I wrote emails to Simon, to Margaret, to Armo, even to the generic sales@primafood address. Someone had to have more information!!

     Gradually it dawned on me that I must go to Kuantan to tell Billy in person what I had told Jimmy to tell him. I knew from having done some research that Firefly (Malaysian Airlines local/commuter airline) has direct flights from Singapore to Kuantan. I also knew that they offer air and hotel packages. The one catch was that you must book at least one week in advance. I found out on Tuesday night that Billy was in hospital. I did not know until Wednesday afternoon in which hospital or even in which city. If I had been willing to wait until the following Wednesday I could have bought a package on-line but I wanted to go for the weekend. I checked on Zuji, the on-line budget site, and other airlines went but it would cost more than $600 SGD for the flight. I am not a cheapskate, a skinflint or a tightwad but honestly, I am not affluent enought to spend that much money to jet off for a weekend!

     On Thursday I called the telephone number provided on Firefly's website and booked a flight - they were not able to get me a room. Those of my readers who have known me since I started travelling will tell you that the 'old' Andrea would not have hesitated to arrive in a place without accomodation arranged in advance. But I am not young and I have learned that I like to know that I can spend my first few hours in a new place getting oriented rather than trying to find a bed for the night. I let Armo, who I had never met and who had no reason to care one bit about my comings and goings, know my flight itinerary. I then proceeded to try and find accomodation near the hospital.

The flight was on a prop plane and it has been a very, long time since I flew that way. We were delayed leaving Chiangi but the one hour flight was uneventful. Peanuts and a juice box were provided free of charge. When we arrived in Kuantan the heavens opened and a deluge poured down. Armo was waiting for me. He called the proprietor of the homestay I had arranged on-line and pronounced it unsuitable. Apparently, it was very far from the hospital. He brought me to the Greenleaf, a moderately priced hotel near the hospital.

     It was from Armo that I learned the details of Billy's illness and hospitalization. He was a good friend to Billy and as I know very well, a good and true friend is like a guardian angel. Firefly only flies from Singapore to Kuantan and back on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, so I took the Friday off work to make this weekend trip, which means that Armo was interrupting his work to fetch a stranger from the airport and find her accomodation. Due to my late arrival, I was unable to visit Billy until later in the day on Friday. Armo came back to the hotel to bring me to the hospital and show me the procedure. I have no doubt that I would have managed somehow to figure all this out on my own but I am also quite certain it would have been much more difficult.

     I have never seen a person in a coma before, films not withstanding, and it was a bit of a shock to see this robust, vigorous man laid out flat with tubes and wires everywhere. But I had a mission and I was not to be dissuaded. So I held Billy's hand and I rubbed Billy's feet and I stroked Billy's brow. I talked and sang (they should consider piping music into ICU). I joked with the nursing staff telling Billy how pretty they were and telling them how much he liked pretty women. When people, both Muslim and Christian, told me they would pray for Billy, I thanked them because I know the power of prayer.

     There are no morning visiting hours in the ICU at Kuantan General Hospital so I wasn't going to be able to see Billy on Sunday morning. I kissed his forehead Saturday evening and told him that I would come and visit him when I returned from Spain. I told him that I wanted him to be awake when I visited again. The following Monday morning at 8:30 a.m. Billy decided to 'shake off this mortal coil' and left behind his pain and troubles.