Why the table nearest the door at the coffee shop was never offered to anyone else before eight in the morning, for thirty-one years.
The story
“Mr Goh came at seven every day from 1961. Kopi, two slices of toast, the paper. One morning in 1972 he didn't come, and Ah Kong kept the table empty all day. He didn't come the next day either. On the third day Ah Kong closed the shop at noon and went to his flat.”
“He'd had a fall and couldn't reach the door. Ah Kong got the neighbour to break the lock. After that Mr Goh came every morning until 1992, and the table was his whether he was there or not. Ah Kong said a regular is a regular until he says otherwise.”
How it came down to us
Mei Lin tells it every reunion dinner, and her son-in-law finally wrote it down in 2020. She heard it from Ah Kong, who told it with a different number of days each year.
What people disagree about
Whether it was three days or four, and whether Ah Kong broke the lock himself. Mei Lin says four days and the neighbour. Her brother says two days and Ah Kong, with a chair.