August 2025: A Month of Farewells and Reunions

August 2025 would be remembered as a month marked by both sadness and unexpected reunions with old friends.

While some former classmates and friends departed this world for good, I was blessed with the privilege of reconnecting with others - including a few I had not seen for more than two decades.

On 21 August 2025, my wife invited me to join her for a reunion lunch at Chennai Recipes Restaurant with several of her former colleagues from IPG Gaya (Gaya Teachers’ Training Institute). They were not unfamiliar faces to me; in fact, I had met almost all of them exactly ten years earlier, in August 2015, when we gathered for dinner at Signal Hill Eco Farm, an eatery owned by my former primary school classmate (Read here).

Chennai Recipes itself carries a special connection. It is run by a former IPG Gaya lecturer who was also my wife’s colleague, and the restaurant has earned a reputation for its authentic Indian food, especially South Indian/Tamil Nadu–style cuisine. It was not our first visit either - we had dined there twice before, once with Serene’s family and later joined by Paul and Junshi during the Lunar New Year earlier this year (Read here).

Now that nearly everyone in the group has entered retirement, conversations have naturally shifted. With their children grown, married, and raising families of their own, the talk now revolves around travel plans and stories of recent journeys. In fact, fixing a common date for reunions has become something of a challenge - often depending on whether someone is away exploring another country!

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As we stepped into the lift at KPJ Specialist Hospital shortly after completing our routine Hepatitis vaccination on 29.08.2025, a man with a familiar face happened to exit at the same moment. For a brief second, I hesitated, then it struck me - it was Johnny Mositun, someone I had not met in almost two decades. To my amusement, my wife only recognized him after I called out his name aloud.

I first came to know Johnny in the early 2000s, when he was engaged by SMK St. Mary Papar to reconstruct one of the aging school blocks into what became the Domestic Science Block. The Principal then - my wife - had roped me in as the Consulting Engineer to provide the design and supervision. That project marked the beginning of our friendship.

The last time I saw Johnny was in 2006, when he invited my wife and me to the Pesta Kaamatan (Harvest Festival Celebration) in Papar. By then, he had already entered politics as a member of the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) under the leadership of Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, the former Chief Minister of Sabah, whom I also had the privilege of meeting at that event (Read here).

Johnny went on to have a colourful political career. He rose through the ranks and served as the Deputy Speaker of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly for a 5-year term from 21 May 2013 to 20 May 2018. Today, he remains active in politics and continues to serve as one of the Vice Presidents of PBS.

As for the Domestic Science Block that brought us together, I was delighted to see it still standing strong and serving its purpose when we visited SMK St. Mary Papar on 2 December 2018 (Read here).

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Much to the annoyance of the people of Sabah and Sarawak, 31 August continues to be promoted as the “Independence Day of Malaysia.” This is historically inaccurate. On 31.08.1957, it was only Malaya that gained independence from the British. Malaysia did not yet exist - it was only officially formed on 16.09.1963, a date more rightly remembered as Malaysia Day.

Politics aside, we spent the late afternoon of 31.08.2025 doing a bit of shopping at Imago Shopping Complex. After dinner at one of the basement restaurants, I happened to notice a senior lady and a younger lady who looked strangely familiar. My memory failed me at first, and I could not place their names. As we stepped out of the restaurant, the senior lady suddenly approached my wife and called out her name. In that instant, it clicked - that was Mary Ho, together with her daughter June and husband Vun Fah. They were back in Kota Kinabalu for a short vacation.

It was hard to believe that they had left KK and migrated to Australia nearly twenty years ago. At that time, after both of their children completed their tertiary education and decided to settle down in Australia, Vun Fah and Mary were encouraged to make the move as well - and so they did, beginning a new chapter of life there.

Vun Fah and Mary had once been among our close friends in BCCM KK (English) during the late 1980s through the early 2000s. I still remember attending June’s wedding. Seeing her again that evening felt surreal - she is now the mother of a 28-year-old son.

To me, that was both incredible and almost beyond belief, a poignant reminder of how swiftly time passes and how much life can change in what feels like the blink of an eye.

Vun Fah, now 86, remains fit and healthy, though his wife mentioned that he experiences a slight stability problem when walking. Other than that, he is still remarkably sharp, with an excellent memory. He and his wife, Mary, reside in Sydney with their son Julian and his family, while their daughter June lives in Brisbane with her own family.