MyStory :: Close Encounters of the Nice Kind :: Close @ Strathmore Avenue

Megat Yusof b. Megat Yahya, 50
Senior Currency Technician
Monetary Authority of Singapore

Raymond Tan, 67
Retiree

Yusof and Raymond first met in the late 1980s when they lived in the same block in Holland View.

Although one lived on the third floor and the other on the eighth, they developed over the years a very tight bond.

“I knew Raymond’s mother first,” Yusof recalled. “She was a very friendly woman who always chatted with me whenever we met.”

“I have also seen Raymond around,” the Senior Currency Technician at the Monetary Authority of Singapore said. “He was always walking around with a bird cage.”

“But I had no idea that they were family members,” said Yusof.

As typical as it sounds, it was football that first brought Yusof and Raymond together.

Raymond, a retiree, proudly announced, “We are both Manchester United supporters.”

He was also quick to add that he played in the centre-forward position for St Joseph’s Institution.

Raymond’s favourite Red Devil is Phil Neville while Yusof likes Steve Bruce.

Whenever possible, they would watch a match together, either at Yusof’s mother-in-law’s apartment, or at Raymond’s brother’s place.

After a Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS) exercise, they relocated to a new block in Strathmore Avenue, and became immediate neighbours.

“We didn’t know we were going to be next-door neighbours,” Yusof recalled.

“It was unexpected,” added Raymond. “But it was a wonderful surprise.”

That move made them even closer.

Raymond, who used to live with his mother and a domestic helper, moved to Jurong West in late 2008, three years after his mother passed away.

He sold his flat because it was too big for a bachelor and he moved to a smaller one in Jurong West, also to be nearer to his younger brothers.

Besides football, Raymond is always telling Yusof about his fishing trips, but has failed in all his attempts to persuade his good friend to join him.

“I always imagine something happening in the middle of the sea, in the middle of the night,” Yusof said. “Then how?”

Although they are very close, getting them to share the secrets of their great relationship was not an easy task, because to them, being nice to each other is only the right thing to do.

“Our closeness just comes naturally,” Yusof insisted. “It is very hard for me to explain.”

“To most people, we are a Malay and a Chinese,” he added. “But to us, we are just colourless.”

Growing up in Lorong 29 Geylang, Raymond was surrounded by Malay neighbours and that made him fluent in Malay.

“I think the fact that I speak Malay helps with my relationship with Yusof,” he said.

Yusof, on the other hand, moved from Kranji to Taman Jurong, and eventually to Holland Drive, where he first met Raymond, a former store supervisor in a shipyard who retired in 2004.

Raymond described his good friend, whom he visits regularly, as a “very friendly chap” and a wonderful neighbour to have.

“Sometimes, his wife would buy me food,” he said.

“I also watered his plants when he went away,” Yusof said.

But one particular incident is etched permanently in the minds of the two men.

“I remember I was going to work one night and I heard Raymond shouting for help,” Yusof recalled.

“Oh yes, my mother had fallen down and because I had a bypass, I couldn’t lift her up,” said the bachelor.

“Thank goodness Yusof and his wife rushed over to help,” he added.

When Raymond’s mom passed away in 2005, Yusof was a regular visitor at her wake.

“There is really no harm to attend such things,” Yusof said. “I also went to church recently for a neighbour’s funeral.”

In fact, Yusof is proud and happy to be surrounded by people of different races at home and at work.

“I don’t know why,” he said, “but I always end up going to lunch with younger colleagues and those of a different race.”

“In my old flat in Holland Drive,” he added, “my neighbour was a Chinese family and we also got along very well.”

For the two, now that Raymond lives alone in Jurong West, what they miss the most are the simple things.

“We could look after each other and call on each other for help,” Raymond said.

“Or we would just chit chat along our corridor,” Yusof added.

Unsurprisingly, he said that if given a choice, he would love to have Yusof as his neighbour again.

Yusof just smiled.