Fiercely independent, he had a history of absconding from care homes for the elderly.

However, it now emerges that he spent the last months of his life in the Silver Jubilee Home for the Aged, reportedly relatively happily and without making any further breaks for freedom.

Uncle Beng came into the news in an FMT report in March 2020, when he was discovered, head wrapped in bandages, in his trishaw outside his favourite kopitiam, Lai Heng 88 Cafe near Komtar.

He was waiting to get his regular cup of “kopi o peng” but the kopitiam was closed and the street was strangely empty of people.

“He had no idea we were in lockdown,” said the man who came to his rescue, Penang ER doctor Ooi Ben Shyen, or Ben as he prefers to be known. He found Uncle Beng alone in the street, waiting for a café that was not going to open.

The frail old man told the young doctor that he usually pedalled his trishaw for hire by day and slept in it at night. However, he had recently been hit by a car, which together with head injuries sustained in a fall, meant he could no longer ride his trishaw and was living on handouts from the public.

After Ben had attended to him medically, he told his social media followers about the senior’s dire plight. He appealed for donations to pay for the ongoing medical aid Uncle Beng needed and to give him a roof over his head to help protect him from Covid.

Thanks to the power of social media and kind-hearted Malaysians, money poured in and Uncle Beng’s injuries were treated and a safe place found for him to live.

Ben told FMT that Uncle Beng had passed away peacefully in his sleep at the end of last year.

When news of Uncle Beng’s passing began to get around, many of his former passengers, including students he had pedalled to school in his fitter days, reminisced about his acts of kindness.

He called the youngsters his trishaw kids and was always generous with them.

Although Uncle Beng didn’t have many worldly goods, he used whatever little income he earned from his trishaw to buy his young passengers treats like ice cream.

Ben’s relationship with Uncle Beng has had a profound effect on him as a doctor.

“As an emergency doctor, I don’t see many people who can’t afford medical care and are not in the position to help themselves or have nobody to bring them to hospital in an emergency,” he said.

“Uncle Beng taught me that no matter who we are, whatever our place in society, we can make a difference in the lives of the people around us. You don’t need much to be kind to others.”

On the streets of George Town, Uncle Beng gave valuable life lessons to those he encountered every day. Perhaps most importantly that however poor you may be, there are always small ways you can bring joy to those around you.

Quite a legacy for one humble man to leave.