Old News

The Stephen I remember                                                                                      by Paulus Ng

A few weeks after I joined the 15^th Group, I saw this tall man attending our weekend meeting. He caught my attention because he was tall, and he was wearing a pair of dark blue shorts as part of his uniform. We, at the time, were wearing our all-grey uniform. I saw the red cap badge on his beret so I knew he was an Assistant Scout Master. Then I was told he was Akela, and I thought, “Hmmm, interesting name”.

Soon, I learned that his name was Stephen Ching. Akela was his title. He was the leader of the Cub Scouts. He also had a nick name: 長腳.

Besides being one of the ASMs, Stephen was also the Commissioner of the Island District. Stephen did not show up regularly for our weekly meetings. However, whenever he showed up, he gave us tremendous fun and taught us valuable skills. I remember that a small group of us were being trained to participate in a district competition. He quietly sat by, did not say a word, just watching us. Later, I found out that he was observing, to assist in selecting members to make up the patrol for the competition.

I lost contact with him and all others when I migrated to Canada. One day, I ran into Stephen on the subway in Toronto. We exchanged phone numbers, which was basically the only communication tool then. We talked once in a long while as we were both busy settling into the new environment.

Many years went by, Stephen told me that there were many old scouts from Hong Kong living in Toronto. They formed a group and were meeting regularly. I was quite occupied at the time so only attended their dinner functions three, may be four, times. A few more years went by, I started attending the Wah Yan Past Student Association meetings, of course, because Stephen told me to.

Since then, I saw Stephen more and more often, as he participated in every Wah Yan events. He gave advices to the executive committee, helped organizing events and most importantly, got people to attend! Seems strange that he never wanted to be the President.

There were only two things on Stephen’s mind – Wah Yan and Scouts. Those were all he talked about. He got excited when Wah Yan Scouts won championships. He would share the good news to every old scout he knew. Everywhere he went in the world, he fist wish was to meet up with old boys and old scouts. He remembered a lot of people and had lots of stories to tell.

Stephen was gentle, kind, religious, caring, loving and hard working. Anyone looking for an example of a “good man”, Stephen is it. I will sure miss him.  長腳