BROTHER Mat is gone, leaving on the third day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, at the height of the Covid-19 crisis and adding to a sorrowful list of friends and relatives who died in the past month.
Known to everyone as Datuk Ahmad A. Talib, or Tok Mat, he passed on yesterday after a brief spell with cancer.
He was a 69-year-old newspaperman whom I had known for more than 30 years, the first time when I was a reporter in the New Straits Times in Penang. He was a news editor.
That was when "brother Mat" was known because it was becoming fashionable of sorts to call one another "brother".
But he was more than a brother to most. And at all times, he put on a companionable front without a frown.
Since we retired, we had hardly met, but I got a pleasant surprise earlier this month when I got a text message from him asking how I was doing.
I thought nothing of it and we exchanged a few postings. I was not doing too well health-wise, having been in and out of hospital for more than a year. I thought he was asking about me.
He said it would be great if we planned a trip to Penang and had one or two colleagues with us.
I told him to wait for the coronavirus problem to end. And in the exchanges, he never mentioned a thing about his battle with the Big C. I didn't know.
It was a few days later that news began to circulate about his ailment, that he was in hospital undergoing chemotherapy.
Oops, I was told that no visitors were allowed, and that was when I WhatsApp-ed him and he told me.
That was Ahmad Talib for you: keep that sad news last.
At the paper, he rose to become group editor before moving up the corporate ladder to Media Prima as one of its board members.
He was a good editor; he knew what should be in the paper. But I think he would have made a better corporate relations man.
Ahmad Talib seemed to know everyone, every minister, every menteri besar, every company bigwig. I don't know whether I can be as pally with them.
He would be at almost every funeral if he knew who died.
Yesterday, everyone asked about his funeral. There were even many who didn't know he was sick.
Syed Nadzri is a former NST group editor
