We had been classmates since Form 1 ( when we were twelve years old ). I had joined the school after my parents re-located from a small town to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia.
It was a big change, in terms of language and school culture. The people in Kuala Lumpur mainly spoke in a dialect that I didn't know and the school was a big one compared to the one that I came from. It wasn't easy trying to make new friends especially when you don't speak the main dialect and many of the girls had been together since their elementary school days.
However I was lucky to have a very nice girl who took me under her wing. She taught me to speak the dialect and to use chopsticks. Who would believe it, me, a Chinese girl not knowing how to hold a pair of chopsticks. The sticks musn't cross when you are using them to pick up your food.
I come from a large family of ten siblings so the easiest way for us to eat was by using the spoon. Mum just gave each of us a spoon ever since we were old enough to feed ourselves and that was the way it had always been. So I didn't know how to use chopsticks. Of course I got laughed at when eating at the school canteen during the recess time. Anyway I soon got the hang of it, thanks to my older friend.
I was in the same class as this lady who invited me for lunch. She came to fetch me and said that having lunch together was the best way of catching up. It's true as one can't really talk when one is in a big group.
So over a simple lunch in an upmarket restaurant, she told me of the years since we left school. She was a high-flying career woman in the private sector involved with private tertiary education. Her three sons are all grown up with their own families and she was widowed more than a decade ago. However she has adjusted to being single once more and she's not interested in a second marriage.
We exchanged news about what we knew of our other classmates, some of whom have already left this world. Time flies. It did not seem so long ago that we were in school, playing pranks on other classmates and doing whatever mischief that seemed peculiar to naughty girls. I remember pulling the pigtails of a classmate, who is now a medical doctor. She was a school prefect and she was always asking me to toe the line, often chasing me literally in the school grounds! I have not seen her since we left school and I would dearly love to see her again.
It is quite fascinating that although we have left school for such a long time and have never met in the intervening years until very lately, it was quite easy to pick up from where we had left off.
Of course the years have played havoc with our looks, our size and our health. She used to be on the plump side but having fallen prey to age-related illnesses, she is now much thinner. Losing weight has had a better effect on her health and I must look to lose some weight too.
The holiday season has wreaked havoc as the goodies have been too much to resist.The older we get, the more sedentary our lifestyle is. We concurred that each day is different, with energy levels decreasing by the day. The joyously wild days of youth are now a distant memory.
Most of our talk centered around people we know and our present circumstances. Old friendships can be revived and there is nothing like an old friend to share the nostalgic memories of yesteryears, when we were in our heydays although we had been rivals to a certain extent.
I'm very blessed in that I have a few old friends who go a long way back and who are truly the "old is gold" kind, who will not hesitate to help when the need arises. These friends share and care. We have shared our joys and our sorrows; we were there for one another. Such friends are few and far in between but they will always be friends forever.
Fair weather friends come and go but the "old is gold" stay close.
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