KUALA LUMPUR: “It was the first and the last time he said he loved me in 22 years of knowing him. And now, he’s gone,” sobbed air stewardess, Chelvin Kong, 28, recalling her last conversation with her brother.
He committed suicide in the wee hours of Wednesday last week. Stating she and her brother, Alviss, 22, had drifted apart since she moved to Brunei after getting married and joining the Royal Brunei Airlines some nine years ago, they still stayed in touch via Facebook.
"I would check his status updates on Facebook before going to bed and we would tease and exchange comments with each other," Chelvin told The Malay Mail.
She became concerned when she saw Alviss' status at 11.15pm on Tuesday, stating there was a 45-minute countdown to the end of his life.
“At first, I thought he was joking," said Chelvin. "What freaked me out was him asking me to take care of the family, especially my mum.”
Taken aback by Alviss' comments, Chelvin said: “Never once had he expressed such mushy words in all the years I had known him.”
Chelvin then tried to call her brother about 1.30am.
When she did not get a response, she contacted her father to check on Alviss. Her father told her Alviss was at his usual mamak spot near their apartment, having a drink with his friends.
Chelvin then persuaded her father to go to the mamak stall and call her from there.
“I spoke to Alviss when my father passed the phone to him. When I scolded him for not answering his handphone, his excuse was he had not heard it ringing. He told me the Facebook comments were just a joke and that he was pulling a prank on his friends.
”During the call, Chelvin said he assured her everything was fine and told her to go to sleep. Reassured, Chelvin called it a night. Thus, she was shocked to get a call from her father later at 3.30am telling her Alviss had jumped off the 14th floor of the apartment building.
“I heard a loud noise and when I looked down from the veranda. It was Alviss lying covered in blood on a car at the ground floor," he had told her.
It is learnt Alviss had been emotionally istressed over a recent breakup with his girlfriend.
Chelvin said she knew about her brother's relationship and learnt the couple had split from his Facebook relationship status update.
It is learnt Alviss and his ex-girlfriend were together for four months. Both had been blogging about the end of the relationship.
Alviss
LAST PICTURE ALIVE: Alviss' final Facebook photo
In a farewell note on his Facebook profile page, Alviss posted one last picture of himself tearing up. Alviss' father, a taxi driver, was disappointed at not being informed his son had been harbouring suicidal thoughts.
Declining to be named, the 60-year-old said he learnt only later that Alviss had confided to his friends about his heartbreak.
He felt they should have alerted a family member, whether or not it was a prank.
"I was there at the mamak stall with Alviss. His friends could have alerted me then about the comments and his conversations with them."
He denied barring the ex-girlfriend from visiting his son's body last Thursday.
“I'm not angry with his ex-girlfriend. She can come and pay her respects if she wants.”
Noting Alviss had introduced the woman as his girlfriend a few months back, he said: "Why didn't he think about his family as much as he did for a girl he only knew for four months?"
Meanwhile, Alviss' mother had yet to be informed of his death as she is reportedly emotionally weak and the family was waiting for the right time to break the news.
She is currently in Brunei to help care for Chelvin’s newborn daughter and is still under the impression the couple had rushed to KL on an urgent work matter.
Mutual friends of the ex-couple were seen outside the funeral parlour at Jirat Kwong Tong here on Friday night.
“We are all here to show support when his ex-girlfriend arrives. To us, no one is to be blamed here. We don’t want reporters to question her about anything," said one of the friends at the wake.
“Speculation from family, friends and the media stating his ex-girlfriend is the cause of the suicide should end. What has happened was just a breakup, common among youngsters these days," said another friend.
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