I previously wrote about Dr Heaslett, my friend Diana's late father who worked in a little town in Johor called Cha'ah during the Emergency.
Researching the post, I managed to reconnect with Diana who had since moved to Australia. Then a week or so ago, I received this email:
'Hello!!
I came across your blog during a search for my family history and have enjoyed reading it.... I was so surprised to read about your friendship with Diana Heaslett!! She is my Aunt!! Dr. Heaslett was my grandfather!! I enjoyed reading about what happened to him, I do remember as a small girl him telling me the same story.... thank you so much for writing and including them.... do you possibly have a photo of the street sign named after Dr. Heaslett?? I would love to have a copy if you do- and, if you have anymore wonderful stories of him or my Aunt... I would love to hear them!!
Thank you so much and Happy and careful travels!!!
~Anna Heaslett-Brown'
Well, no more stories of the good Dr Heaslett, but it did set me thinking... And so as I prepared to go up to KL for Alex Yap's farewell, I made the decision to take the scenic route and drive through Cha'ah.
The last time I drove through, Cha'ah was still fairly small, a backwater town with a strange name and not much else of prominence. It seems to have grown in the last 5 years or so though - new double-storey shop houses, more streets, and a larger footprint on the map of Johor than I remembered from before.
Going through the new bits, I spied the Police Station which I had dropped by, asking for the whereabouts of Jalan Heaslett those years ago. I took the next right turn off the main trunk road and found a few new buildings dotted here and there. I recognised the little stadium, now roofed, and turned into the street that I remembered to be Jalan Heaslett, renamed as Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman.
The shops looked very much the same but I could find no street sign to take a picture of. The only one in evidence was faded and I could just make out the current name - not the first prime minister as I had remembered, but Tun Dr Ismail. One doctor's name replaced with another.
I wandered off to have lunch and found an old hawker who remembered the Mat Salleh doctor dimly.
Anna wanted a picture and the one I had taken many years ago had not been unearthed in my brief search before I left. A new picture was imperative... so I strolled down the short street after lunch, snapping some pictures.
Jalan Tun Dr Ismail was a throwback to an earlier age, but it was almost at the very end that I finally found what I was looking for. A set of old blinds hung down the front of a shop. And there, on the partially unfurled middle one was the name of the street. The original name: Heaslett Street.
I snapped a couple of pictures and was sure Anna, and Diana, would be pleased.
Researching the post, I managed to reconnect with Diana who had since moved to Australia. Then a week or so ago, I received this email:
'Hello!!
I came across your blog during a search for my family history and have enjoyed reading it.... I was so surprised to read about your friendship with Diana Heaslett!! She is my Aunt!! Dr. Heaslett was my grandfather!! I enjoyed reading about what happened to him, I do remember as a small girl him telling me the same story.... thank you so much for writing and including them.... do you possibly have a photo of the street sign named after Dr. Heaslett?? I would love to have a copy if you do- and, if you have anymore wonderful stories of him or my Aunt... I would love to hear them!!
Thank you so much and Happy and careful travels!!!
~Anna Heaslett-Brown'
Well, no more stories of the good Dr Heaslett, but it did set me thinking... And so as I prepared to go up to KL for Alex Yap's farewell, I made the decision to take the scenic route and drive through Cha'ah.
The last time I drove through, Cha'ah was still fairly small, a backwater town with a strange name and not much else of prominence. It seems to have grown in the last 5 years or so though - new double-storey shop houses, more streets, and a larger footprint on the map of Johor than I remembered from before.
Going through the new bits, I spied the Police Station which I had dropped by, asking for the whereabouts of Jalan Heaslett those years ago. I took the next right turn off the main trunk road and found a few new buildings dotted here and there. I recognised the little stadium, now roofed, and turned into the street that I remembered to be Jalan Heaslett, renamed as Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman.
The shops looked very much the same but I could find no street sign to take a picture of. The only one in evidence was faded and I could just make out the current name - not the first prime minister as I had remembered, but Tun Dr Ismail. One doctor's name replaced with another.
I wandered off to have lunch and found an old hawker who remembered the Mat Salleh doctor dimly.
Anna wanted a picture and the one I had taken many years ago had not been unearthed in my brief search before I left. A new picture was imperative... so I strolled down the short street after lunch, snapping some pictures.
Jalan Tun Dr Ismail was a throwback to an earlier age, but it was almost at the very end that I finally found what I was looking for. A set of old blinds hung down the front of a shop. And there, on the partially unfurled middle one was the name of the street. The original name: Heaslett Street.
I snapped a couple of pictures and was sure Anna, and Diana, would be pleased.
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