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He's almost 80 years old of age and he's living his retired life in Sungai Petani. He's rather well known among the local community even everyone in my family loves him as he's a jovial and funny person to be around with. With plenty of experiences from his past only to be told in the present, sitting down with him over a cup of tea in the afternoon can be truly a mindteasing experience. 
Our family members calls him by the name of Uncle Joe. Tan Soon Aun was his real name and he was branded with many other nicknames during his service for the Malaysian Army (Tentera Darat . Thrown into the midst of revenge for the family that was murdered by the communists and he will never forgive and forget those days. He kept telling me that "It never slips off my mind how my parents were killed on that day... and it continues to haunt me in my sleep once in a while." If anyone talks about Chin Peng (the Malayan Communist Party leader), he will say "I will take whatever necessary action so that I can end that man's life if he ever comes back to Malaysia." 
He was blessed with 2 sons and a daughter. His pride as a father were then shredded into pieces when his eldest son married to a Vietnamese wife and it all happened with the so-called ungrateful son of his turned his back from him after his marriage. According to him, his son never returned to see him whenever he was sick or didn't even bother to talk to him at all. He considered his son as a long lost child that was never being born. Uncle Joe's wife did slip us a few notes that he still misses his son although his mouth were condemning him to hell. 
On a lighter note, Uncle Joe has been a family friend for a very long time. He has been a true friend to my late grandfather and everyone enjoys his company. The reason being is that he has many philosophy in his speech and it always ends with a joke. The conversation with him on that day was somewhat funny because we were teasing Uncle Thomas for being single all these time. He always give me a few tips on how to be a real man around woman. I will surely remember how to apply those tips when the right moment comes.
His house are full of trees and bonsais that he likes so much as he spend most of his time tending to these trees, turning his entire garden into a little forest. From time to time, he opens the door for the public to come see him. That's because he's a practitioner in traditional medication using herbs that's being gathered in the forest. "I won't charge these people, helping people is always a noble thing to do". The people around the area knows him well. He did tell us that if you go out to the streets around Sungai Petani and mention his name, everyone will surely knows of him.
Chinese New Year was never complete without visiting him in the past and we never took the effort to go see him for the last few years. It's still surprising to see him being so strong and still maintained his lively status for a man being this old. "The key to my long life is to just sit here, drink tea and smoke. Everything else, I just let others go settle." 
He gave everyone a chance to touch his beard on that day, which I find it funny. He mentioned that not everyone has this chance to touch it other than himself, but since he's happy he'll be much happier if we do. And by doing so, he'll bless us with good fortune for the rest of the year. Everyone broke out with laughter as it was rather hilarious coming from him. Oh... those were the good times!
A jolly good man and that's how I will always remember him for.
