I got to know Fan Lan in the church youth fellowship way back in the late 1960's. Her family had been particularly kind to me. Back in 1972 after I finished my A Level and after knowing my financial difficulty, she convinced her mother to act as financial guarantor to enable me to successfully apply to do a degree course in civil engineering at the Southampton University, UK. Even with the university acceptance, I didn't have the money to fly there and to pay the course fee. In the end, my plan to study there never materialized (Read here). Had I gone there, life would have been totally different. Of course, God had other plan! Later on, Fan Lan went to study in Canada and eventually settle down in Toronto.
Each year when she came back to KK from Toronto for holidays, she would without fail remind me of my promise to visit Canada. It was her persistent reminders that nudged us to finally proceed to plan for our August/September trip to Canada. Once we had confirmed our tour, she immediately offered us to stay in the house of her sister's family for free in Toronto. She has earlier shifted from her own house to stay in her sister's huge mansion while her own house was under renovation.
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| Grand spiral staircase. |
Breakfast in her residence & Pho Hung (Vietnamese Ngiu Chap) in Balwin Street.
An avid coffee drinker, she took us to the touristy Balwin Street for a stroll and a cup of coffee. She also made sure we can savor more Canadian coffee by packing a few bags of freshly grind coffee powder for us to bring back to KK.
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| Annabelle, granddaughter of Fan Kiok. |
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Our host took us for a dinner just before we flew back to KK.
Left: Fan Kiok & Fan Lan.
Right: Dr. Man, Fan Kiok's spouse. |
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