A couple not meant to be for eternity

Sitting indoor at the end of a long table with a 180-degree panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean beyond the horizon, the urge to write overrides the unsettling weather and the cool winds blowing. B.C. weather is as unpredictable as my temper. We have enjoyed two days of sun after some heavy rain and now today showers have been forecasted.

The two people who pop up in my mind are David Lui Siu Hing and Teresa Ho Wai-kee.

The rule of ladies first does not apply here as David and I met at the end of August and memory of his presence is stronger.

He told me he excelled in P.5, was awarded a scholarship and got into P6A. We didn’t meet until the next year in F1A. There were moments/happenings in that class I remember clearly. I was sitting in front of this boy called Tsang Yan-hoi and sitting next to me was Carmen Chan Mei-yuk. David sat behind her. David and Tsang were the taller boys so they sat at the very back. In front of Carmen and myself. My memories said they could be either Alex Yu Wai-yin or Vincent Lam Shu-sum. But Richard Hui Wan-fai could be in the vicinity too. Anyway these two tall, relatively handsome boys were behind us. Girls at that time did not look at boys, but because Tsang was tall he often had his feet stretching out to the front and his shiny shoes were quite a spectacle to look at. His other signature was his hair held in position with hair cream adults favoured at the time. Unfortunately Tsang wasn’t in the same class as me after F1 and later rumours had it he joined some powerful underground groups. There was hardly any communication between us and the boys throughout the year because boys stuck with boys and girls stuck with girls. 1A was supposedly a class with good behaviours. Even a rebel like myself hid behind perfectly acceptable veneer.

Yeas later I found out David and I shared the same passion in watching foreign films and although we had not met at anytime or in any cinemas, we gobbled more or less a lot of the same films at the time. He was even active in this film club called ‘Fiery Bird’. He had administrative work and wrote film reviews on artsy types most secondary students wouldn’t understand.

David was, for the most part of my high school life, in the same class as mine. In later years when not too many girls were studying in science classes, my seat in the class seemed to have moved closer to the blackboard. So if it hadn’t been for Teresa Ho, we would not have kept in contact all these intervening years.

Teresa came into the picture of my school life in my primary 6. Remember I said my best buddy Vivian, who for one and a half years from the second term of P.4 sat beside me, left to be in 6A. Life was not at all exciting at the beginning. Chan Ka Ying was in the same class and she was visible with her man-like manners. Teresa, on the other hand, was more difficult to stand out. She had this habit of slightly lowering her headfirst, and then tilted her head back a little bit before peering through part of her hair that fell on one side. Her eyes were dark and shiny although she had glasses on. She looked demure and a bit sad all the time. My happy outlook could never allow anyone to be on the sideline and ‘triste’, so my instinct was to befriend her and my mission was to draw her out of her own cocoon. I was successful and in no time we became friends. Her sad outlook stemmed from her losing her mother at a young age and she was in the care of her stepmother with younger children of her own. My faint memory on this seems to say she was not at all happily cared for. Anyway, behind the image of someone disadvantaged, there was a strong-willed girl who would become a formidable force in shaping her own life.

Of course after P6, Teresa and I might not be in the same class together for I have no recollections of incidents that involved the two of us in a school environment. But we kept up with our friendships. I was even invited to her home for a party. Now I am not ashamed to say my family had some money and I had not been inside a housing estate run by the government. At the time there was no toilet or washing facilities inside each flat. There was a communal bathroom and a communal toilet area for all the tenants on the same floor. These conditions did not deter Teresa from inviting her friends to be part of a very happy get together. I will always remember that night and I will always be grateful she had shared those happy moments with me in them.

Then true to her plan, Teresa wasted no time in becoming independent as soon as the school certificate exams were over. She found a job with a small computing outfit and learned to be a programmer. Her place of work then was on Waterloo Road, in this complex which still stands today. There was the Alliance Francaise where French lessons were given and across from it there was the Four Seas Bowling Alley but now stands the ‘Sars Hotel’ or Metropark Hotel as it is called today.
Since I started to take lessons at Alliance Francaise in the summer of 1971, we had many occasions to meet and talked. This liaison continued until she found a new job with Wah Kwong Shipping Co. owned by the family Chiu.

Her transformation from student to workingwoman was quicker than most of us girls still at school in F6. She moved out and lived alone, became more confident by the minutes. Then I left for Canada. Her romance with David began with the help of another Munsang classmate not in our grad class because she had to repeat a year. Her name was Mui Siu-ching. Apparently Teresa and Mui were good friends and Mui was at one time pursuing David. The outcome was David and Teresa got married and quickly they had a boy. With her shrewd investment sense Teresa bought an apartment built by her company who gave special discounts for employees. From that small flat she was able to elevate to a bigger one in Tai Koo Shing in 1979.

All through the years abroad, I was able to keep up our communications. She was most generous and when she found out I fancied a Japanese chimpanzee stuffed toy named ‘Taichong’ she would send me these stuffed toys from time to time with the latest one bigger than the previous. And when I visited Hong Kong in the times between 1972 and 1979, we hung out as much as possible. She had become a very classy looking woman. Her favourite had to be knee high boots, which look great on her. She was contemplating her career move for by that time her skills with programming had greatly improved although she was holding a F5 qualification. She is a woman of great reserves and determinations and I must say although I have not seen her since 1981, I believe strongly she still has these great qualities.

I moved back to Hong Kong in December 1980 and we took our first trip together in early January to Tokyo. Again her shipping company provided very good deals to employees and so we embarked to Ginza and Mount Fuigi for three whole days. Her ambition took her from Wanchai to Central with Esso. After working in Central she fell in love with her boss and proceeded with her divorce. Although to me divorce was nothing uncommon, and it was a pity David and Teresa was both dear friends to me, the upsetting thing had to be her plan to disassociate herself from her son. Later she remarried her boss and rumour had it she hadn’t told his spouse family she had been married with child. Without seeing eye to eye with her in her marital and child rearing matters, we put an end to our friendship over a dinner date in Central. I now regret the decision. Friends do not turn their backs on friends no matter what.

I often asked David if he had heard from Teresa and the last info he had was she had her second divorce and might be living in the Washington area. It might even be in Seattle.

Herman, their son, is now 33. David has since remarried and they are all doing well. The only question is is Teresa also doing well and loving her new life in America?

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