PREPARING FOR A LIFE BEHIND BARS
Fai began serving his sentence in June last year after being convicted of fraud and sentenced to 10 years and four weeks’ jail.
He had spent about five years preparing his two children, now aged 17 and 15, for his absence, starting during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I tell them daddy is going away for a while. A while means I never tell how long. So I prep them. I tell them what to do,” he said.
Although his children accepted that he would be leaving, they were curious about why.
Fai decided to be upfront about his imprisonment rather than tell them a “white lie”, knowing his sentence was too long to conceal the truth.
“They are 14, 16 that time. I think they should know where I’m going,” he said.
“Basically, I have no secret with them. I just tell them, my sentence is 10 years, four weeks. Better to let them know. If not they will be asking, ‘Daddy, when are you going out?’ They don’t know when, it will be a question mark to them.”
Two months before entering prison, he began leaving notes for his children with instructions on doing laundry, choosing detergents and helping their mother with household chores such as vacuuming and cleaning the toilet.
These were tasks he had typically handled, along with cooking for the family.
“I’m very close to my family. I always cook for them, wash clothes for them. Everything also I do because I pamper them,” he said.
THE FIRST VIDEO CALL
By their third video call on Thursday, conversation flowed easily between Fai and his daughter, moving from schoolwork and exam results to the haze and cooking.
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