SINGAPORE: Towards the end of his latest and longest – seven-and-a-half years – stint in prison in 2019, Mr Kalaychelvam Vairappan received a printed letter with no return address. It was from his children.
“You should know why we never reply all your letters. We are living day by day. So, please, when you come out, give my mother divorce,” the father-of-two recounted the letter’s contents to CNA.
“So I thought, since you want, (I will) give lah,” he said.
Mr Kalay, as he’s better known, said his ex-wife did not visit him in prison during his most recent sentence for drug abuse. Since the divorce, he also has not been in contact with his son and daughter, aged 31 and 27 respectively.
But the 59-year-old warehouse assistant – whose brushes with the law began when he stole a bicycle at 13 and was sent to the Singapore Boys’ Home – is hopeful that will change once his family sees that he is determined not to return behind bars.
He is, after all, no stranger to second chances. Many have been given by the place he calls home.
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Read full article by CNA here.