There’s nothing like a death to remind us of our mortality, to put things into perspective, to shake us out of our complacency. And recently, there have been too many. Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett, Yasmin Ahmad and now, Jeffrey Lee. Of course, there were others in between and Jeff was hardly a celebrity, but he was the one who hit closest to home.
They say it was a motorcycle accident. We weren’t close but I think Jeff loved his bike. We’d met him during our dive trip to Sipadan in January. He was a dive instructor and he introduced himself as we were checking in at the airport. He probably took one look at the bunch of us and thought, I’m going to have to keep an eye on these guys. And he was right.
He saw the boys off on their wildly-ambitious swim to an oil-rig in the distance, and he tried to wave them in the right direction when it was clear they were going off-course. He sent the boat for them when he decided they probably weren’t going to make it, and he and I waited together for the boys to come back.
I only saw him once more after that trip – a few of us had drinks together one night – but the boys have seen him several times since. We are in shock. I can’t even imagine what his close friends and family are going through. Suddenly, nothing seems certain anymore.
Rest in peace, Jeff. We’ll always remember you. Thanks for being a part of our Sipadan experience; it was our best dive trip ever.
(Photo from G.)
