Life After 55

Yesterday, I flew to Tawau to attend the monthly site meeting for a Federal-funded low-cost housing project. My flight was at 6:10 am, which meant I had to be at the airport by 5:05 am. That, in turn, required waking up at around 4:30 am - painfully early for me! Still, I prefer this arrangement over travelling a day earlier and having to spend the night in a hotel, which I’ll only do if absolutely necessary.

At the airport, I noticed a fairly large group of senior citizen golfers heading to Tawau for the Senior Citizen Golf Competition. Among them were familiar faces: Datuk KS Fung, Stephen Liew, Chan Hon Sang (ex-consultant), Tan Sun Chai (Kim’s father), and Yap Shau Nam.

Yap was once one of our regular badminton buddies back in the 1980s. Later, he joined BCCM Petagas and stopped playing with us. In the past five years, he’s switched to golf and now plays off a handicap of 22 - not bad at all. He runs a steel fabrication workshop, with Wong Kok Group as his sole client, handling all the ironworks for their housing developments.

During our brief chat, Yap said something that struck me:

“If you are not a Christian and not involved in some kind of social activities that connect you with people, life would be indeed meaningless.”

His words resonated. Truly, if one lives a life focused solely on oneself, with little thought for others, one may be remembered as someone who merely existed - but never truly lived.