Wong Siang Hume, a man of his word
 |
Leonard Wong Siang Hume, 1941-2004 |
“He was very dedicated to his work and up till the week before he died, he was still working,” lamented his wife, Florence.
“He loved us very much, but he never got to spend enough time with us. When he fell sick, he told me that he would change that when he got out of the hospital, but he never got the chance to do that,” said the 56-year-old nurse at their home in Damansara Jaya, Petaling Jaya, on Monday.
Wong’s death on Aug 20 – the result of a possible lung infection – left his family, friends and former students stunned.
“It was all very sudden for us because we expected him to recover,” confided Florence.
Whenever Wong gave, he gave his all, she said.
“He was a generous person with no ulterior motives,” said daughter Sharon, 32. “Whenever he did something, it was because he loved doing it.”
Wong cultivated in Sharon and his 29-year-old son Jason, patience, positivity, a love for books, and the English language.
“He used to correct our English all the time!” said Sharon, laughing.
Wong, who was born in Kelantan, began his teaching career at SRK La Salle in Peel Road before moving on to SRK La Salle in Sentul, SMK Maxwell and finally, St John’s Institution, all in Kuala Lumpur, where he continued to teach for two years after he retired.
He had been teaching English and business studies at the De La Salle Institute in KL before he died.
“Many teachers would complain if they have to teach two-hour periods. Not Leonard. For him, the longer the period, the better,” said Wong’s close friend, Tee Kok Bin.
Joshua Thong Wing-U, a third semester business communications student at De La Salle described being under Wong’s tutelage as an extraordinary experience.
“He had loads of patience. I used to make the same mistakes over and over again, but he never raised his voice at me. He would just ask me to do it all over again,” reminisced Thong.
To draw his students into his lessons, Wong often sang and strummed his guitar.
“He would play us music to keep us from getting bored, and this was especially helpful to some of the foreign students who couldn’t speak a word of English. The music would help make the words easier to remember,” explained Thong.
Wong’s love for Scrabble culminated in his organising and winning a fair share of competitions here and abroad, in addition to his writing a fortnightly Scrabble column in StarTwo.
Said Sharon: “He just loved words.” Pointing at her father’s massive collection of dictionaries, she added: “Words were challenging to him, and he did have a competitive streak in him, although he was never upset when he didn’t win.”
It was a mutual love for Scrabble that forged the friendship between Wong and the Malaysian Scrabble Association’s second vice-president, Brother Michael Wong.
“The elements of intrigue and luck were what got us hooked on the game,” said Brother Michael.
The two met in 1989 when Brother Michael, who is now 57, began serving his tenure as principal of St John’s Institution.
“Both of us were already playing Scrabble when we met, and what struck me about him was how kind, compassionate and helpful he was to everybody, and how he never looked down on anybody.”
Wong was also a self-taught musician. “He learnt how to play the guitar, piano, organ and clarinet on his own,” said Sharon.
“He loved playing jazz, or at least try to ‘jazz’ up whatever he played!” said Sharon.
His other passion was watching movies.
“He just loved movies, and our favourite thing to do with him was to watch movies. His particularly loved those where the underdog truimphs.
“I suppose that’s why he always paid special attention to the students who were weak, and he enjoyed teaching them more than the smart ones,” revealed Sharon.
“His mantra in life was: ‘Anything worth doing is worth doing well’, and that’s exactly how he lived, and it showed.”
RSS
