Old man's wisdom

[napman]

First off, I?m sorry that I kept re-activated this thread midst the chaotic flooding circumstances in Thailand and particularly in Bangkok right at this moment. And I?ll try my best to make it as short article as possible even I?ve been knowing him since I was in my late 20s.

But I just woke up from a dream that I had dream about Pa Roon for the first time in my life less than an hour ago.

I don?t recall dreaming about him even if we?ve been known each other since late 70s. Today after my wife gets off work at 7.00 pm we?ll go to Wat Thai at North Hollywood for PR?s Buddhist ceremony, I?ll drive from our home to pick her up at her working hospital in Glendale and go together to Wat Thai.

So let me take this opportunity to use this thread as PR?s eulogy here.

I?ve met him for the first time in my life after heard quite a few stories about his life when I arrived at Los Angeles in 1972. I got married in 1979 and was in the beginning stage of playing tennis because my wife was and still is so fanatic about tennis and I was also quit playing soccer at that period.

I was playing in the rock band at the ?Thai House? in Hollywood area (Western & Santa Monica) that was own and ran by Veerachai Thanasugarn (Father of Tamarin Thanasugarn, the first professional Thai tennis player) in around 1977 and VT himself was also an avid tennis player and also all of his 3 children plus Tamarin who was still a few years old baby running around her dad?s restaurant and sometime I even held her in my arms too.

VT asked me to join him in forming the very first Thai tennis tournament in Los Angeles and I gladly obliged. VT introduced me to Pa Roon and the other guy Preecha NakThong who was the father of another Thai kid tennis player who were active in tennis scene at the time. Four of us were the very first spearheads for Thai tennis tournament that kept on active until recent years (VT moved back to Thailand many years ago).

I didn?t really think about PR as much before I went to sleep last night, so to dream about him was kind of surprised me. I dreamed that I and him and other 3 friends went trekking up the mountain. I and PR teamed up as a pair while the other 3 friends teamed up as the other team, and my team of me and PR reached the summit first!! I dreamed that he kept pushing me up until I reached the summit! And I even dreamed on that I later went to his party of some kind and he handed me some kind of trophy for my effort!!

You see, I and him were pretty closely working as a team while we tried to develop and sponsored those Thai tennis tournaments years ago. And when PR got re-married (when he was about 70 years old) to my wife?s junior classmate (they are nurses that graduated from Mission medical school in Bangkok in 1972) we became even closer. PR and Thiangsiri his wife have 3 lovely children; Fonthip, PR junior and Emily. Their children sometime played tennis together with my children when they were at their young age.

My family moved away from LA in 1989 to live in Alta Loma so we didn?t see each other as often as we did before until only few months ago that my wife dropped by at Wat Thai and coincidently met PR for the last time.

I wanted to say that PR is one of my few inspiration individuals in my life in many ways. But one of his characteristic that so outstood in my mind is how he treated his friends and associates. I?ve never once in my life heard him mention any bad thing about anybody!

Of course he?s not a Saint in any mean, he was just another people that came into my life but man he?s really lived his life that many other would envy him!! He was an talented tennis player as we all knew, Nobody could touch him when he was in his prime. He was a kind of very sportsmanship athlete, always a graceful winner and importantly even loser in his later years (he beat me in tennis like a drum when I first started and he was about 30 plus years older than me!). He would be 98 if he?d lived until this coming December but of course nobody knows his/her last day. He even wrote some memo of his life and planned how to celebrate his 100th birthday when it comes that of course will never materialized!

He was and is and will be the legend of our time especially for Thai people in Los Angeles to talk about in so many years to come. He?ll live in my memory and he?ll be one of my idols that I will try to learn to live and be a nice person like him in many ways.

We?ll be at Wat Thai in about 12 hours from now to celebrate his legendary life for this extraordinary person in my life, I salute you Pa Roon my dear old friend, from the bottom of my heart. It?s been a good actual life learning lessons of 30 plus year of knowing you, SIR.