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By Avis Wong

HE communicated with his family through little notes in Chinese.

During the month that local comedian Wang Sa was in hospital suffering from chronic lung disease, he could not talk.

"He scribbled us notes telling us when he was hungry or itchy. Sometimes, he told us to go home and rest," said Mr Eric Heng, Wang Sa's fourth son.

Wang Sa, whose real name was Heng Kim Ching, has been hospitalised since Christmas Day.

Mr Heng, 31, said last night that his father had died yesterday of the disease at the New Changi Hospital.

The skinny half of the famous Chinese comic duo Wang Sa and Ya Fong was 73 years old.

Pioneers of comedy : Wang Sa (right) and Ya Fong
were the local version of Laurel and Hardy,
affectionately known as Ah Pui and Ah San
(The Fat and Skinny Ones).

He left behind his wife, four sons, a daughter and five grandchildren.

Although plagued by lung disease due to heavy smoking for more than 10 years, his death came as a surprise to his family.

Said Mr Heng: "He was responding well to treatment and seemed mentally alert. We didn't expect him to leave so suddenly."

When Mr Heng and the family visited him at nine yesterday morning, he had seemed all right.

Then suddenly he became breathless and his blood pressure plunged.

"My dad lost consciousness and died peacefully. He just seemed to doze off. There was no pain, no struggle, no tears," Mr Heng added.

A family member at the altar of the
late comedian Wang Sa

At Wang Sa's funeral wake at Lorong G, Telok Kurau Road, late last night, there were no tears.

Mrs Wang appeared calm but Mr Heng revealed that his mother had been crying when his father died.

Wang Sa's death comes 2½ years after his partner's death. Ya Fong had died at 63 in September 1995.

Wang Sa and Ya Fong were the local version of Laurel and Hardy.

They worked together from the 1960s till 1972 and then split to try their luck at movie-making in Hongkong.

They got back together to perform on TV again in 1990 and were last seen in a variety show in 1994.

First published in The New Paper, Jan 19, 1998

More stories:

	Making faces, making laughs
	Wang Sa
	Laughter takes a back seat
	Ya Fong
	'Never thought he'd be first to go'

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