SASers at Claire and Leon’s wedding: front, Paula Silverman (teacher), Jennifer Lee (98), Claire (98) and Leon (96); second row, Rick Silverman (teacher), Rose Bava (teacher), Carolyn Choy (98), Nini Mitchel (former staff), Wendy Choo (98), Ann-Marie Tan (98), Ezra Miksic (95), Umerto Pellegri, Samir Mowla (97), Anokhi Kapasi (98); third row, May Lim (current staff), Jim Baker (66 and teacher), Robert Saludo (69), Farida Mallal (retired teacher), Pauline Ashness (retired teacher), Kathy Tan (67), Chris Tan (96), Fritz Tan (93), Brian Miller (95); fourth row, Rohaya Samijan (current staff), Karen Wong (current staff), Henry Tsang (69), Maevin Tsang (70), Vivien Tsang (68), Zahed Kahn (97), Mark Garofalo (95), Richard Miller (97).
The beauty and the geek Claire and Leon by Leon Liu (96) Although it took over a decade, it was inevitable that the two of us would meet eventually. Claire and I both attended the Singapore American School, and one of Claire’s best friends, Amy Tan Wei, was the younger sister of one of my best friends, Chris Tan. We caught glimpses of each other either at school or while hanging out with our respective groups, but neither of us had the opportunity (or interest) in talking to the other. (Think beauty and the geek...) A tragic circumstance brought us together ten years later when my childhood friend, Rajiv Krishnan, passed away. A memorial was held in New York, and I flew up to attend. I found Claire to be interesting and captivating, and we found
we shared a lot of interests in common. After a year of seeing each other every weekend, I decided to propose, but my “funny but romantic” scenario did not exactly play out well. The idea was simple. We were in Singapore visiting Claire’s family, and I planned to put a large, fake diamond around the neck of Claire’s favorite dog, who would then appear at an unexpected location on Claire’s morning run. Being the dog lover she is, Claire would most likely start playing with the dog, without suspecting that it was Casper. I would kneel down and do the same (meanwhile, Claire’s family would be taking pictures). I would ask Claire to look for a license to see who the dog belonged to. She would search the collar and find the fake ring. When she finally put the pieces of the puzzle together, I would already be on one 26
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