This is our tribute to our dear youngest brother, Roddy on his funeral today. We lost him in a road mishap on this fateful Christmas morning at 6.20am, when he left us without a word of 'goodbye'. His sudden departure is a great loss and pain to all of us irrespective of how we are related to him for we all loved him so much beyond words can expressed.
This tribute/ovation to Lay Keong was prepared by me,
his third sister, on behalf of all his siblings
"Our youngest brother, Roddy Ong Lay Keong was born in the year of the Horse, on 29 January 1967. Since his birth, we believed he was the family's shining lucky star. Our late father managed to secure a long lasting business contract with a well established manufacturing factory that brought a change to the family's financial status. The contract lasted well over 40 years, almost as long as Lay Keong's lifetime.
From young, he used to be a cute, handsome-looking chubby little boy well dressed in denim clothes and attire. Everybody loves this lovable boy. This cute little boy had travelled as far as Indonesia and Singapore with us, his 3 sisters.
As a boy and until his last day, he had never caused trouble/problems for his parents and family.
Eventhough, he did not excel in his studies, he had established a long lasting friendship with his classmates since his school days until today. All we know of our brother Lay Keong was that he had been a jovial and happy go-lucky guy. A filial son to our Papa and Mama, caring and loving husband and father to his wife and 2 young daughters, a caring and concerned brother to his siblings, a great uncle to his nieces and nephews. He was also a great and dear friend to all who knows him, his friends. Please give him a clap for who he was before this day.
"Now that you have left us so suddenly on this Christmas morning without a word of 'Goodbye', we believed this wasn't your choice as you too loved us so much. Perhaps, you have another great mission waiting for you to do, that is to shine light, bring joy, love and happiness into another path elsewhere.
Whatever it is, you have lightened up our lives all these years you were with us bringing us much joy, laughter and happiness.
You were the pride of your parents, brothers and sisters, wife and children, nieces and nephews, relatives and friends.
We love you, miss you and shall remember you forever and ever."
"Rest in peace dear youngest brother Lay Keong"
This is a video clip of the tribute in Mandarin,
recited by his niece Thanatcha, Ee Mei
献给我们最亲爱的弟弟———礼强
我们最幼小的弟弟，礼强——出生于马年1967年1月29日。自从他诞生后，我们相信他是我们家的幸运儿，福星，礼强更是把好运带给我爸爸，让他的事业，生意步步高升，也让我爸爸的生意维持超过40多年，差不多跟礼强的寿命一样长。从小他就是一位不折不扣的可爱又帅气的小男孩，穿着高贵的牛仔装。每个人对他又爱又疼。小时候就跟我们这些兄弟姐妹们到新加坡和印尼旅行。在我们的记忆里，他从来不带给父母和家人烦恼与麻烦，反而带给我们幸运，欢笑和快乐。虽然在学业上他没有取得很好的成绩，但他却认识到一班与自己感情坚固的同学朋友们，直至现在。礼强和郎与爽快的个性使他拥有许多朋友们，他对待长辈们都抱有孝顺与关怀的心。同时，他对晚辈们的关心与爱护更是不容置疑。据我所知，礼强是一位好儿子，好弟弟，好爸爸，好丈夫，好叔叔，更是一位难得的好朋友的好朋友，我相信在场有他的好同学，好朋友们，亲戚与亲爱的家人… 你们在哪里？请把掌声响起来献给礼强。
礼强，你在圣诞日[25-12-2013]这天突然一言不发离开了我们，这使得我们都感到遗憾，但我相信，这不是你的选择，也许你是把快乐，欢笑与幸福带到另一个美好的世界。
总而言之，这么多年来，你照亮了我们所有人的生命，你是父母，太太，女儿，兄长姐姐，朋友与侄子们的骄傲，礼强，我们会永远爱您，永远想念您，永远把您记在我们的脑海里。
谢谢！
These are some photos I took at a house along Weld Quay. The family has been offering prayers yearly the traditional way [Penang style] to Jade Emperor [Thnee Kong] for several decades. My family used to offer prayers the similar way during the times our family lived at the area.
