I find his name a bit peculiar when I first heard it .."Romuald Kuha" that is odd, I don't think he is an Iban, was what came to my mind. True enough, he was a Melanau. That explained the odd name. BAP was my first project working together with him in year 2006. I find this young engineer is very smart not to mentioned brave enough to face the Consultant. Whenever there is a problem at site, he would resolve it with the Consultants as well as the Subcontractors. I was really please with his performance. So came the idea that for the next coming project in Sarawak I will propose Romuald as the Project Manager. I even voice it out to the top management and they seems to agree to upgrade him for the next project. When he was in BAP he also undertake to carry out the construction of the Sibu Airport Tower, a smaller project under TRC which he and another supervisor Maoh Dingon completed within 6 months time. This serves to confirmed that Romuald will make a great Project Manager one day. Years pass by, continuation of another project in Sarawak seems to be only a dream. I knew Romuald would never want to go to West Malaysia, so came year 2010, he voice out to me that he is going for an interview with an international company. I gave him my blessing and told him that if ever he needed to come back to TRC, we will welcome him with an open arm. He came back from the interview telling me that he is taking up the offer which was way beyond what TRC can offer him. I was happy for him and wish him all the best in his future undertaking. That was the last time I saw him April 2010.
I received the sad news on the early morning 27th May 2012, the passing of Romuald Kuha due to the rare rat urine infected cases. My heart just stop beating and I couldn't believe it when I saw the condolences on his facebook. This can't be true!!! I kept on pinching myself that morning and called several friends to confirmed his death.
For several days floods of memories with him came back to my mind....Romuald likes to joke and he never fail to make me laugh. He refered to our security guards as Upin and Ipin as they are brothers and one seems to be shorther than the other. I remember once our Accountant made a remark during lunch in one of the chinese restaurant "Rom, you cannot eat wild boar as you are a muslim" Everyone laugh because his name maybe Romuald Kuha bin Pius Kuha but he is a Christian every inch of his body. Our accountant was the only one that didn't know he was a Christian because of his odd name!!
I can always remember the laughter that came from Mr. Lau's room whenever the three of them with Adrian & Rom having a discussion. I knew Romuald was cracking one of his jokes in Mr. Lau's room.....
Those were the memories I had of my dear Romuald Kuha. I am glad and truly blessed to have known him. I will always remember you and may your soul rest in peace and I know that you are in a better place with Jesus, my friend.
