As many of my friends on Facebook are Pui Ching alumni, I am sad to let you know that our dear friend, Mr. PaulMan Chan, passed away in Vancouver earlier this week.

Paul was a few years younger than me, and he was at “學社”. He was an active member and the vice president of the “Vancouver Pui Ching Alumni Association”. I had the opportunity to work with him during The 5th Pui Ching World Alumni Day event. He was very enthusiastic and always willing to help. He was dedicated to both his work as a IT specialist as well as matters related to Pui Ching. He certainly helped us a lot with his technical skills in updating information on the internet and connecting with members.

Apart from work, Paul enjoyed eating very much. In his spare time he liked to play his favourite online games and assist Pui Ching Alumni Association. Since he didn’t like exercising that much, he spent most of his time at his desk.

He had expressed previously to his parents that he had some chest pains. In November last year, Paul’s father underwent a heart surgery which did not go as planned. It resulted in many complications afterwards, and developed into pneumonia. His father was at Royal Columbian Hospital and Paul drove his mom to visit his dad daily. Towards the end of November, Vancouver had a few snow storms and Paul’s chest pain became more serious after he did a lot of snow shovelling. It was after the heavy snow lifting that he noticed an unbearable chest pain and ended up calling an ambulance. He was still able to walk up to the ambulance himself and explained what was happening.

After waiting for over 6 hours at the ER at the hospital close to his home, he was transferred to another hospital. He had to undergo an immediate heart surgery as all his blood vessels were blocked. After surgery, Paul was still in a coma and needed to be transferred to St. Paul’s Hospital given the seriousness of his condition.

Needless to say, this created a huge burden for Paul’s 73-year-old mother. She lives in Coquitlam and it took her over two hours by transit to visit her son, and another few hours to visit her husband.

It was only when Paul’s mom could finally turn on Paul’s phone that she was able to pass on Paul’s condition to another alumni in Hong Kong, who then shared the news with Pui Ching’s Vancouver group.

After many surgeries, Paul’s condition continued to deteriorate. Most of his internal organs failed and he ended up on life support. It was a tough decision but we all understand it would be best for Paul to let nature take its course on him. During the final days, many of you forwarded voice messages to him, and Paul heard them all. He opened his eyes and we noticed on the monitor that his heartbeat increased. In his final hours, his immediate family members, Pastor Jeffery Ku, our chair of the association Mr. Benjamin Li, and a previous MLA Mr. Kenny Chiu—all Pui Ching alumni—were there with Paul. Paul’s passing was a relief to him and his family. He will be watching over us from heaven now.

Paul’s mother has shared with me that Paul was a great son and they were very close. He liked the colour red and his favourite cartoon was Garfield. They talked a lot and she remembers many of your names, which came up during their conversations. She could not have asked for a better son than Paul. He will be dearly missed!

Our thoughts are with Paul’s family at this difficult time. His Uncle / Mrs.Chan's brothers are here in town now to support their parents and each other, but when they leave his mother will once again be all by herself as her husband is still in hospital. If anyone of you are in the Coquitlam area, please do reach out to Paul’s mother. She doesn’t drive and relies on transit. The good thing is that they do go to church, which will provide the spiritual support they need to get through this. We will all keep them in our prayers.

Pui Ching has alumni associations all over the world, and each province or state has its own. However, over the past years, it is obvious that we were not able to attract any newcomers, perhaps because people feel that everything they need to know is on the internet and there is no need to join the association. This incident shows that we are a close knitted group and we are willing to lend a helping hand whenever necessary. I have told Paul’s mother that it is Pui Ching’s spirit to help each other out. I hope many of you would follow in Paul’s footsteps and be part of the alumni association. We never ask for donations and the only payment needed is the annual association fee at a nominal amount. Every Chinese New Year, we host a gathering event to mingle and share news about our school. This year, for sure we will be missing our dear friend Paul.

The family is still arranging the details of the funeral, which I will share once they are available. Thank you for your patience.

On behalf of the Chan family, thank you to everyone for your love and support over the past weeks. Paul was so fortunate to have friends like you all!

泣輓

曦社 顧寶瑶

PS:

We understand his 80 years old Dad is not doing too well and has a bacterial infection in his cervical spine. The current treatment is injecting antibiotics to his body through intravenous therapy for 6 weeks. However, if not clear up, may have to remove the infected spine, so could be problem. Please keep Mr.Chan in your prayers

 

 

From <https://www.facebook.com/yoyo.koo>