Hank.

19.4.2010.

No, Hank's no Mat Salleh - it's just a handle put on him in RMC days, for reasons now lost. Hank crops up just now because Usop Pokak called Saturday night that he had a fall and had been hospitalised in KP, but that he was improving. Since I was at a Surau function, and since Usop said Hank's out of danger, I decided to visit him the next day. 

I called his mobile a few times that night, but failed to get an answer.I was thinking about coming during the noon visiting hours, knowing how sticky the security can be. Unfortunately, the missus came back well past 12 pm, so we actually left for the hospital after Asr. And found bed no. 3, ward no. 4, already vacated. The nurse on duty said Hank was discharged at 2.

No serious affliction - only some sort of viral thing. I called from the ward, and at first Shidah answered, but later passed the phone to Hank. So I told him things look okay, especially since his name had not been erased from the board ("belum padam").

We go back 50 years.  We were at PD, and Sungai Besi. Later during university we stayed off-campus in the same house for some of the three years we were undergraduates. Halim "Rock Foundation" (that was A.K. Bear's work) used to stay with us. This was also when I visited his parents quarters in Cheras. I also went to his house at Pulau Pandan (no, no sea here) in Pelangai. That was when I learned that Sulaiman, Azizah's father and therefore Usop Pokak's father-in-law,was Hank's uncle. 

When I moved to KL from Melaka in 1969, I sold my Austin Mini 850 (NC 8157) to him. My Felda job required a car with better ground clearance, and so I bought the first(BU 5771) of my three Fiats. I think Hank was with M.U. then - Malayan University, not Manchester United. Later he moved to Jengka, and came back to KL, joining the old Perwira Habib Bank. 

When our two older children, my No.1 Son and his daughter Aida, were attending their tuition classes after school, I used to drive them both, since I was in DU and Hank was in TTDI, neighbouring housing estates. 

Hank and I also picked up golf at the same time, and got our official handicaps also at the same time - mine at SIGC, his at KGNS. This was 1986, I think. Before that we used to play tennis together. I remember one time he came to the Felda courts where the Dewan Perdana now stands, and he was upset because one Chinese Felda officer remarked that the facility is for Felda staff only. Well, that chap had a fatal accident a few years later, along the Pahang road somewhere near the present Gombak highway. I can't remember his name, but he was known as a fast and fierce driver who used to show his fist at oncoming drivers. But we shouldn't be talking bad about the deceased. 

Anyway, after 23 years, Hank is still claiming to play at handicap 20. But I wonder if he still plays at all. Me, I play 9 holes everyday, unless it rains too heavily. You don't keep in constant touch with really old friends because of circumstance. Too bad. But fond memories remain, and the friendship, at least on my side, remains,  too.  Hank's one such. 

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