Less than a week after a triumphant book launch of the story of his life, journalist and author Kevin Sinclair's life ended with his wife at his side after a long and valiant fight against the cancer that finally overcame his body. He had battled his cancer, clocking up victory after victory, for 30 years.
That last crowning achievement at the Foreign Correspondents' Club attracted a who's who of Hong Kong society, from Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen to newspapermen and other friends from all walks of life.
Sinclair had the rare ability to cross social and cultural strata with ease. He was just as at home taking an argumentative lunch with a prominent politician at the China Club as he was sipping a beer at an old dai pai dong with locals somewhere in the New Territories.
He had a way with people that made him excel at his craft. It was hard not to feel at home with this larger-than-life character.
A man with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, he also found time to write numerous books on subjects ranging from architecture to Chinese cooking to the history of the Hong Kong Police Force. One of his most comprehensive achievements was writing a centenary book documenting the history of the South China Morning Post.
A conversation with him, for the newcomer, was hilarious to watch, as the listener tried to catch his words as they rumbled from his throat - courtesy of a tracheotomy necessitated by one of his first rounds with cancer in 1978 - accentuated by theatrical gestures and eyes that bulged for effect at a story's climax.
He was indeed part thespian and raconteur, with a wild humour that could make a Hakka fisherman blush, a charm that could disarm the iciest argument, and an impish way with children that could always draw a wide-eyed squeal of delight and perhaps the exclamation: 'Mama, who's that funny man with the hole in his neck?'