Jerry Keng Wah Tan, MBBS

Dear Family and Friends,

 

To all of you that have come to pay your last respects at this virtual venue, you have the heartfelt gratitude of my mother and I. It is a testimony of the impact and influence that my father's life has had upon us. Which brings us to this moment where we are here to collectively remember and celebrate his life. 

 

My father lived a full life, a life of loving devotion to my mother who equally devoted her life to caring for him. In his youth he achieved 9 distinctions and topped all of Singapore and Malaya in the 1948 Senior Cambridge exams and was the Dux of St. Andrews School. He worked as a family doctor and retired in his fifties, loved to play golf and holds a record at Singapore Island Country Club of 2 holes-in-one. My parents honeymooned in Japan and they've enjoyed vacations to almost all the continents. 

 

When we think about the life of Dr. Jerry Tan Keng Wah and ask what were inspiring and memorable attributes that personify his legacy, to me these are R for Resilience, L of Loving Kindness and I for Integrity. R-L-I: All will agree that he was a R-L-I (pronounced "Really") good man! 

 

Let's talk about R for Resilience.

Most people do not realize that my father had many close brushes that may have interrupted his life earlier on. My father was born in August and is a Leo, a lion which is a big cat!  He was indeed leonine in character, with a strong persona and a big heart. A cat is said to have 9 lives, and when I count those close brushes, I think there were at least 7.

 

The first incident occurred during the Japanese occupation when my father was going about his neighborhood as an innocent young lad seeking some simple thrills on his bicycle. He was speeding down a hill just as a Japanese officer was crossing the road at the bottom of the hill. Lo and behold, my father's bicycle brakes failed, and he crashed into the officer, mowing him down. The officer's pride was more hurt than his bodily self. He stands up in rage and pulled out his officer's sword.  Just as he was about to strike my father, some passers-by gathered around and pleaded with the officer, citing the lad's tender age and innocence. The officer luckily cooled off and left my father to live another day. 

 

The second incident happened when my father and his friend were walking across a sports field when they were first year medical students.  Out of nowhere a javelin was hurled by another medical student practicing his sport. From afar, my father's friend the late Dr. Arthur Lim shouted "Jerry!" and me father turned in his direction. At that moment the arc of the  javelin's trajectory ended in my father's abdomen. If he had not turned, it may have pierced right through him. He told me that as he lost consciousness in the ambulance, he experienced the tunnel of light and a grandiose sense of equanimity that we have heard about in near death experiences. He said that he wouldn't have survived that incident iff not for the skill of his surgeon, Prof. Yeoh Ghim Seng, who later became Singapore's speaker of the house. My father lived on with a fraction of the length of intestines that we all have. At that time my mother was already his girlfriend and she rushed to the hospital. This experience made her treasure my father even more.

 

The third incident was an accident at sea, off the coast of Pasir Panjang. My parents were part of a shared ownership of a boat called The 4 Aces. The late Dr. Koh Eng Kheng's family was interested in joining this group and they went off for an introductory joy ride. As the boat handler revved the outboard motors and the speedboat darted out of the marina, there was a loud thud. Unknown to all on board, the loud thud was the hull being perforated by a submerged stake. The boat started taking water when it was further out into the ocean, and began sinking. When they were quite far out at sea, the boat capsized. They all clung onto the floating capsized boat as night fell, until fortunately a passing Marine Police Boat rescued them. Mrs. Koh Eng Kheng and her 2 sons were in the cabin when the boat capsized. Fortunately my parents were among those that could swim who jumped into the sea and clung onto the capsized boad. Singapore's well known journalist Irene Hoe had 2 sisters that had come along for the trip, Betty and Mary. Fortunately, they were strong swimmers, and they managed to rescue those that were trapped in the cabin. My father recounted that fortuitously a passing marine police boat rescued them just before nightfall.

 

The fourth incident was in 2004 when my parents were returning home from a shopping trip and my father had a heart attack while he was driving at the junction of Dunearn Rd. and Kheam Hock Road. They told a taxi to follow them home so that the taxi could immediately take him to the hospital. So here was my brave father driving home while experiencing an ischemic heart attack, parking the car in the garage, then going into the taxi for the ride to the hospital.  He had to undergo triple by-pass that took more than 5 hours during which his heart was stopped and chilled under cardioplegia for the procedure. His heart was restarted and had continued beating until now. 

 

The fifth scary incident occurred in May 2018, when he had a lump in the groin and was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), an aggressive cancer of the lymphocytes that needed to be treated with aggressive systemic immunochemotherapy with Involved-Field Radiation Therapy (IFTR) in order to achieve a cure, even in early stage DLBCL as my father.

My father was concerned about chemo side-effects but his oncologist Dr. Jens Samol said that he could tolerate 3 cycles of R-CHOP with close monitoring of side effects. The treatment was eminently successful, and my father's cancer was stopped in its tracks!   

 

The sixth one occurred in early 2024, when he went to get a haircut at Coronation Plaza and contracted Covid. At his age, this was a real struggle, and his blood test results showed evidence of heart failure. He was treated successfully and was in relatively stable health until October 2024. He was treated for a septic cyst inside his nostril that formed a fistula all the way opening a hole to the surface. Antibiotics did not help even after 30 days. In November 2024, I was by his side watching the situation and was not convinced it was just sepsis. I called up my cousin Dr. Benny Tan who agreed that we needed a second opinion. I brought Dad for a CAT scan which showed a large growth nearing his eye, then a tissue biopsy confirmed that it was cancerous. He was too weak to tolerate chemotherapy, so we immediately started radiotherapy which stopped the growth. If not, he may already have left us earlier this year. This was the seventh episode. 

 

As you can see, one could say this lion of a man had 7 lives. Talk about RESILIENCE!

 

L for Loving Kindness

My father was a natural in actionable compassion. 

As a Mahayana Buddhist, he naturally carried out the Bodhisattva vows in that he combined medical knowledge and loving kindness to administer to his patients, and many of us were his patients. He would also absorb the costs of medicines and taxi rides home for patients that couldn't afford. After he retired from general practice and sold his Rose Dispensary at Balestier Road, he still continued to volunteer at the Tai Pei Old People's Home, where he had a lifelong relationship with the Tai Pei Yuen Temple.  

 

I for Integrity

My father was always straight as an arrow, unbending in principles and held everyone to his high standards. 

 

There we have it, my father was a R-L-I ("Really") good person. He was an inspiration to all of us during his life, and we entrust this inspiration to our collective memory.