From Classroom to Life: Stories of My La Salle Classmates (1)

 A Reunion and a Life of Service

At a La Salle Old Boys reunion in Toronto in 2014, a gentleman walked up to me and started chatting. We looked carefully at each other, but neither of us could recognize the other after so many decades.

Yet within minutes, our conversation revealed something extraordinary—two boys once helped by the same school had taken very different journeys through life.

As we talked about the old days at La Salle College in Hong Kong, memories slowly surfaced. His name was James. Although we had studied at the same school, we realized that during those years we had never really known each other.

Our conversation soon turned to how we had first entered the school.

James told me that he had arrived in Hong Kong as a new immigrant from Malaya. His family did not have much money, but La Salle College admitted him and generously supported his education. His tuition was waived and the school even provided textbooks so he could continue his studies.

When I heard that, I smiled.

“I had a very similar experience,” I told him. “The school supported me fully as well.”

At that moment, although we had not known each other as students, we suddenly felt connected. Both of us had benefited from the same generosity of our school. Even after all these years, we shared the same deep gratitude and pride for La Salle College.

Then James began telling me about his life after school.

He had become an ophthalmologist—a specialist in eye care. But his career was not just about practicing medicine or publishing in medical journals. What made his story truly remarkable was his sense of mission.

Throughout his career, James travelled to different parts of the world helping poorer communities establish free eye clinics for people who could not afford treatment. In places where medical resources were scarce, restoring a person’s vision meant giving them a completely new chance at life.

Over the years, he worked with doctors in various countries, donating ophthalmic equipment, lecturing local physicians, and performing surgeries for patients who otherwise would have remained blind.

In addition to his medical work, James also became a writer. One of his books, F.O.B. in Paradise: A Memoir, describes his early struggles as an immigrant. At the age of nineteen, he arrived in Honolulu from Hong Kong with only a few hundred dollars in his pocket. Like many immigrants starting from nothing, he faced uncertainty and hardship—but he held firmly to his dream of becoming a doctor.

Listening to his story at that reunion, I felt deeply impressed. Many doctors achieve professional success and publish in medical journals. But it is rare to see someone combine professional accomplishment with such generosity of spirit—using their skills to help the poorest people regain their sight.

After decades of work and service around the world, James told me he was planning to retire in Hawaii.

As our conversation ended, I reflected on the strange and wonderful ways life unfolds.

Two boys once supported by the same school had grown up separately and never known each other during our student days. Yet decades later, we met again in Toronto and shared how that early kindness had shaped our lives.

In James’s case, the support of a school long ago had travelled far beyond the classroom—reaching across continents and helping countless people see the world again.

Looking back, I am reminded of a simple truth:
a school’s kindness to a young student may seem small at the time, but years later that kindness can ripple across the world in ways no one could have imagined.

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This story is the first in a series of memories about my La Salle classmates—each with a life journey that turned out in ways none of us could have predicted during our school days.  

This story was first captured in simple notes on my cellphone and laptop—just fragments of memory and reflection. I then used AI to help me expand those thoughts into a fuller narrative.

If you are curious about how I use AI to document my life stories and observations, I share more of this journey on my AI learning blog: ai123.ca.

Looking back, it is not success that defines a life—but how far the kindness we once received continues to travel through others.