Dear Mr Tessensohn,
I write with news;
new hopes, new dreams,
new traumas, new tenacities.
I write with news of what you knew;
I write in the knowing that now has become your then.
Dear Mrs Martens,
or may I call you Nanny,
like he does,
like they all still do?
Or may I call you, still,
the name you should always have been known by,
young and old, old and new:
my great lady,
my queen of the heart of Pulau Ujong,
my most esteemed, and most revered, and most missed
Merlionswoman.
Dear Mr Martens,
son of the last Merlionswoman of Singapore,
and grandfather of the result of her kodratic equations ---
how dearly missed you still are.
And dear Mr Mesenas.
We still see you both in our classrooms, every single day.
We write with news of your grandson.
Your great-granddreamtiger.
Your great-great-great grandmerlionsman.
Your Kabesa Kodrah Kristang.
Your Kev.
We are pleased to inform you that he is as gay as you anticipated,
as tragically, horrifically abused as you ever were,
and as undaunted.
As unconquered.
As unyielding.
As unstoppable.
As Kristang.
We must advise you of the news,
and of all the old,
the shimmering and the dreaming,
the light and life that is returning to all that we know.
We must advise you that you have a (great-great-(great-)) grandson-in-law,
no matter what the law says
(as if it ever would matter to any of you when it comes to family).
We must advise you that your names are remembered again,
your stories told,
your lives lit and flickering.
We must advise you that Singapore is looking to you once again.
And we ask for your blessing on all of us,
old and new,
young and old,
gay and very gay,
Singaporean,
Jenti Pulau Ujong,
jenti Kristang.
We write with news of your Kev.
He misses you.
He loves you.
He honours you every single waking day and dreaming night.
And he sends his regards with every fibre of his battered brown body,
every fire in his brave, brilliant heart,
and every flash of light and life,
mercurial, magnificent, munificent, Merlionsmanic.
They know you again.
This is news.
These are the stories you fought for.
And this is you, and I,
wishing the past, present and future well.
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