I used to hate math. A lot.

Credit that to a grade school teacher who, when she decides that you're a total dumb ass in Math, ignores you for the rest of the year (or maybe it's just my paranoid personality disorder talking).

And with that, I decided, since she labeled me so, I wasn't any good with math at all, and I did not try as hard as I guess I could have.

It was all the same for three years in high school; I did take math seriously. If I flunked an exam, I flunked. If I passed, I passed. Rarely did I even try to comprehend what the teacher was trying to teach about math.

But that, as the cliché goes, all changed when I reached 4th year in high school.

We had this math teacher who made math seem absolutely easy and understandable. He did not laugh at stupid questions, and he never ever ran out of patience. His lectures weren't boring, and he knew how to laugh with his students and at himself ("Um, sir, the function of z is not closed... it's open!").

I listened to him teach, I took down notes, and I made every effort to pass every exam he gave.

And for the first time in my life, I understood math, and in time, learned to love it because of him.

One of his requirements so that we can get his signature for our clearances was that we all give him a graduation picture each. We all complained of course, but I guess he had his reasons. Besides, I did not begrudge mine one bit.

Sir Alex Alix passed away just a few days ago.

I would have loved to hear of him still teaching math to his high school students well into his retirement. A "professor emeritus" of some sort; he deserves it, somewhat.

What I hate about growing old and moving on is that through circumstances, you lose touch. The last time I saw him (first sem, first year med school), he looked absolutely fine to me.

I never did hear that he was hospitalized, or that he was getting worse.

I never did get to say that he was my favorite math teacher. Or that for me, he was my ONLY math teacher.

Goodbye, sir. Your students will all miss you. Everyone up there will enjoy learning math from you.

Our prayers will always be with you.