A friend who has passed on

Had a phone conversation with one of my "juniors" from Speech Therapy school, last night. She and I were in the University of Queensland together, except she graduated in Dec 2000 and I in Dec 1999. So, I finished my contract with the Public Service Commission (PSC) in January this year. She will finish her contract with National Council of Social Service (NCSS) next year. And she and I were discussing about what her options were after her bond finishes.

The Public Service Comission awarded only one person for the PSC Open Scholarship Overseas (Health) for Speech Pathology in 96, me la. As expected, they were handing them out only once in two years. So in 90, 92, 94 and 96. The "understood" pattern was that the next one they'd be handing out would be in 98. But in 1997, they gave out THREE.

I made friends with all three of them. In fact, I remember PSC calling me in Dec 96 saying "You have to take care of three juniors next year," I was like ?!?!?!?! So fast, and THREE? But no regrets, they're wonderful.

Along the way, we picked up another scholarship holder from NCSS from their year as well. That's the "junior" I was speaking to, last night. So I had to watch out for FOUR in the end.. But they were great. Once I got them sorted out, they managed well. I think, BETTER than I, academically that is.

So, my 3 PSC scholarship holder juniors. Let's call them A, B and C. Coincidentally, those ARE their initials!

A has now moved on to the States, she met and married someone from the U.S. about two years ago.
C has now moved to Australia, SHE met and married someone from Australia while in University. Her husband moved to Singapore, they got married in 2001. About 2 years ago, they moved to Sydney with their FOUR daughters. I'm so happy for C.

Sadly, B has passed away. I remember when he died. We were all so sad. The 5 of us had not gathered together since University days. But what a way to gather. That was just sad. I remember praying with mutual friends in the hospital when he was in critical condition. It was depressing. B was always a reliable young man who was a motivated therapist, and nobody had anything bad to say about him at all, really.

I still remember the last conversation I had with him. We were at a mutual friend's wedding. B was telling me about his trip to Europe. He had all these funny stories.

We miss you B. RIP.