A Sad Anniversary

I just didn't feel right this morning. My kibun was bent all out of shape and I couldn't figure out why. Then I saw the date and realised today would have been my brother David's 70th Birthday. He died on 8th January 1984 in Seoul, Korea aged just 43. The Koreans cremated his body the next morning and David's Death Certificate just read: Cause of Death: "Illness"

By the time the police knocked on my parents' door, poor David was already ashes. I was in Tokyo on business in 1987 and decided to go incognito to Korea and see if I could find out anything more about David's end.  I presented my passport at the immigration window at Kimpo Airport in Seoul and watched with increasing concern as the Immigration Officer firstly scrutiniised me again after looking at a list on her computer and then pressed a buzzer that must have rung somewhere in a security office. I was arrested and held incommunicado overnight in  an airport cell before being deported on a flight to Hong Kong early the next morning.

We never were able to establish how David died. A burst ulcer was the closest we got.  David Nicholas Elliott Squires would have turned seventy today.  I would swap everything I've ever done to be able to buy him a drink today. God Bless you, David, wherever you are today.