HE was looking ahead to a bright future, planning to work part-time while studying for a business degree.
--CRYSTAL CHAN
And his parents had high hopes that he would soon be able to take care of them.
Today, Jeremy Tan, 23, lies in a vegetative state in hospital, with doctors giving him little chance of ever recovering.
He was two months from completing his national service (NS) when he suffered permanent brain damage in a mystery fall, most likely from his third-storey room, at the Seletar Camp nine months ago. (See other report.) His parents have found it hard to come to terms with the tragedy.
THREW AWAY PHOTOS
His mother, Madam Hor Hong Kiow, 45, hates to be reminded of what her only son looked like before the incident.
So much so she threw away all the photographs of Jeremy in happier times.
Madam Hor, a shop cashier, did not want to be interviewed, but her husband, Mr Tan Kian Lee, spoke about her grief.
'In the first few days after Jeremy was hospitalised, my wife cried as she looked at photos of our son when he was healthy,' he said.
'After that, she could no longer bring herself to look at the pictures so she threw almost all of them away.'
Mr Tan managed to find one picture of Jeremy and his sister Chia Min in their childhood and keeps it in his wallet.
And these questions keeps buzzing in his mind: How did Jeremy fall? Why did he have to become a vegetable?
There were no witnesses to the fall and Jeremy is in no condition to talk.
He said in Mandarin: 'We know life must go on but we'll never have peace of mind until we know what happened.
'We were hoping that our son could care for us after he finished NS. But now, it's the other way around.'
The family's nightmare began at 7.30pm on 3 Aug last year.
Mr Tan, who is unemployed, was watching television with Chia Min, 17, when he got a call from the Singapore Armed Forces.
He was told that Jeremy had been found unconscious and bleeding from his head in Seletar Camp.
COULDN'T STAND UP
Speaking to The New Paper in his three-room Jalan Dua flat, off Old Airport Road, he recalled: 'I was so shocked I couldn't stand up and my daughter had to support me.'
The family rushed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital and saw Jeremy, a polytechnic graduate, lying in bed with tubes poking out of his body.
A neurologist told the Tans he was in a vegetative state and would need to be cared for the rest of his life.
'We cried our hearts out when we saw him like this.
'He was perfectly healthy, but after the fall, he's incapable of doing anything,' said Mr Tan.
Before the tragedy, Jeremy used to jog and do standing broad jumps every day.
Madam Hor became depressed and now suffers from insomnia.
Mr Tan said: 'Sometimes, she tells me to get a baby boy for her because she considers that she has lost a son.
'I'm praying hard that nothing will happen to her because she's the sole breadwinner.
'I won't know what to do if she loses her job.'
The family visits Jeremy every day, hoping for a miracle, although doctors have told them he will not recover.
They wipe the sweat from his head and say encouraging words like: 'You'll get well soon.'
OPENS AND CLOSES EYES
But Jeremy, who can open and close his eyes, only stares at his family.
Mr Tan said Jeremy hoped to sit for the Scholastic Assessment Test and study for a business degree at the Singapore Management University.
'He talked about working part-time to finance his education. He also hoped to do some small business as he thought he would earn more than a salaried worker.'
Mr Tan said his son, who has a business diploma from Temasek Polytechnic, is single and has a cheerful personality.
Adding to their pain are unkind remarks from some people.
'One relative told me, 'You must have owed your son a lot in your previous life. That's why you're repaying him now in his present life,' ' Mr Tan said.
'One neighbour told me that I must have done some bad things, so my son's tragedy is retribution.'
Chia Min, who is close to her brother, was affected by the tragedy and failed her O levels last year. Mr Tan said she did not have the heart to study hard after what happened.
Said Mr Tan: 'Only one person is physically hurt but three people are emotionally hit.'