I met William in 1993 or 1994. He was a friend and former work colleague of my wife-to-be. That was important: I married Nonnie in 1995.

William and I clicked the first time I met him. Intelligence, honesty, friendliness and humility were his trademarks. Also, his knowledge of obscure facts was astounding. He loved computers & science and shied away from conflict or any expression of negative emotions.

William was the kindest host and Nonnie, William & I biked & dined together in Richmond, BC. William had an amusing trait of not speaking in Chinese to his father. KC would speak to William in Chinese. William always answered in English. KC and William kept nothing in their fridge. Every night, they ate dinner together at a restaurant.

William and KC kept a dog that was much like William in temperament and heck, appearance; that will make sense to those who pay attention to such matters. Wonderfully gentle dog.

William drove a Camaro - cool car, pristine condition. My older Audi seemed gutless in comparison, though somewhat more practical given its 4 doors. I still own that Audi, purely on sentimental attachment. And I wonder about what happened to William's Camaro. William scanned a picture of me with my Audi and loaded it onto my laptop as my screensaver; he also recorded his and Nonnie's voices saying something like "Hello James!" for being automatically played whenever my laptop was first turned on. That laptop is long-gone, but I still have the picture somewhere on one of my hard-drives. Whenever I pull it up, it reminds me of William.

For a time William dated Nonnie's friend, which led to some amusing history that I will cherish the thought of, but in deference to Stella cannot recount here.

William was among the first to introduce me to the fun side of computing and that was invaluable for me in 1995 when I became CFO of a holding company with consumer software company subsidiaries and 1999 when I became CFO of an internet media streaming company.

The first computer games I ever played, I received as a gift from ever-generous & thoughtful William and I still keep the CD-ROMS, cherish and occasionally play them (note the need to exit to DOS to do so!).

Nonnie & I attended KC's Vancouver restaurant opening; William of course was attentive & generous & I believe that is where I first met Samuel & their kind mother. The entire family were great hosts as always.

Nonnie & I really enjoyed William & Stella's wedding in Vancouver. The Church also happened to be very close to Nonnie's parents' house: in fact just a short walk across the side-street. Quite the lucky coincidence, I thought.

After that, I saw not too much of William, as he departed to HK along with Stella and Samuel. I visited HK in 1998 and again in 1999. William and Samuel and their mother were perfect hosts.

In 2000 Nonnie & I had our first child. In 2001, Samuel visited Vancouver and I saw him & KC for lunch at Cardero's restaurant in Coal Harbour, Vancouver. William did not make that trip, unfortunately.

In 2004 William came to Vancouver/Richmond. He had e-mailed me before he left, but did not do so when he was here. When he got back to HK he said he had tried to call me but my number or numbers had merely kept ringing. I didn't realize at the time they had changed from when he last used them. Unfortunately, William had been in town for only one week and it had been an overwhelming week for me on other tasks & issues including moving homes and I had two kids by then; our second was born in May/03.

The lack of meeting up was terribly unfortunate since that, it turned out, was my last chance to see William. William, Samuel & I kept up some level of communication by e-mail and William was generous with the joke e-mails until for some reason they stopped coming - think by then William had as full a work load as he could handle.

I have a digital photo of myself & William I will alway cherish. It was taken by a professional photographer and William gave it to me on disc. We are on the Peak in Hong Kong. He is wearing a suit and tie. I am in the same yellow sweatshirt I happen to be wearing as I type this. We are both smiling. It is night-time and the tall buildings below the Peak are illuminated. Hong Kong Harbour is in the background. William's mother will remember, since she took us up there. An invoking instant in time.

Wish I could have seen you again, William. Your memory & spirit lives on in all you touched with your presence. See you in the Cosmos, perhaps. If Heaven does exist, you are undoubtedly there now.

20 March 2006 - Vancouver, Canada