Unpleasant news in the ST Obituaries today. This kid who occasionally came over to my place to play with my sister has passed on. The two were best friends since kindergarten (SVDP), in primary school (CLGC), secondary school (SJC), then college (CJ). Then finally their education and career paths took them in separate directions, though they still kept in touch quite frequently.

In Beijing, she caught the flu but thought nothing of it at the time. Before long, it developed into pneumonia. Further complications brought her immediately into ICU and that was it.

No, I didn't know Erica well. To me, she was just my kid sister's playmate. And I didn't recognize the photo in the papers either. I knew her as a child, but never as a career woman nor as a mother. And I didn't expect the child to go so soon...

Someone I knew; someone I might have got to know better, but didn't.