2355“Now I know you’re expecting something funny because you’ve just seen me do a comedy show,” comedian Pete Grella told me in his audio clip.

”Probably the most poignant thing in the last two years, is one of those phrases you expect when you get up there, in your mid-forties, but you never want to hear, is to have a family member – in this case my sister – call and say to you.

”And you’re half a world away, and you haven’t been home for four years. And no matter how much you expect it, it still hits hard and two years later affects so strongly that it overrides every other thing you want to say.”

After he finished his story, Pete wiped away the tears streaming down his face. I then hugged him, a man I’d just met and who’d previously been making me and many others laugh in a nearby comedy club. I hugged him as he wept for his dead mother.

Afterwards we made happy small talk and parted. But I’ll never forget Pete, or his story.

Taken in Hong Kong during the SOTM World Tour.