I met Michael when we both started Primary 1. I was at that time not yet familiar with the language of instruction which was English (my dialect-speaking parents didn’t see the need or couldn’t afford to send me to kindergarten) which led my teacher to believe that I was somehow mentally impaired, what today we would call a “special needs” child.

Michael didn’t have that problem. Light brown hair and eyes, and a toothy smile, he was the only child of a Chinese mother and an English father who owned a small shipyard in Kallang Basin. Despite that initial language barrier, we got on.