posted on 30.11.07, at 15:32.

so fragile, life is.

yesterday i was rudely shocked by some events, and it suddenly all came to me that life is so, so fragile, and it didnt matter if you were old or young, strong or weak, intelligent or less, death is inevitable and unexpected.



yesterday afternoon i was surfing the net, stumbled onto reuben kee's facebook account. he was one of the five national dragonboaters who unfortunately drowned in cambodia. i read his wall, and it all started out with random comments from friends, cos like us all he's just an ordinary kid. but then on nov 24 the comments started turning into "please be safe reuben" and "come home soon", while he was missing, and by nov 25 it was all "i'll miss you" and "rest in peace".
my heart just ached for these fine, young, strong, talented and capable chaps who died without expecting it, and died without saying goodbye.

then yesterday night,sherene (my eldest sis) called and i picked up the phone, expecting a random chat about yet another boring day at her school.
sherene: you know patrick?
me: yah, your mortal right? yeah i remember u buying a patrick star keychain for him. why?
sherene: he... (heavy pause) died.
the word hit me like cold ice. died.

he suddenly collapsed at a car park and died on the spot, yesterday afternoon.
i dont know him, but he's quite a close colleague of my sis and so she does mention him from time to time.like they were playing Angel&mortal amongst the teachers, and she happened to be his angel.
he's a teacher in his forties; a father of four young kids; his family were overseas at church camp; he couldnt join them cos he had work to finish up in school; he was supposed to fetch 'em back later that day.
sherene was telling me about his last few days around. he seemed fine; still joking about and being the happy, funny person he was. just that very morning, he was still about in school, an ordinary person going about his ordinary life.
no symptons no nothing, and suddenly the ruthless grim reaper just came and snatched him away.

i was so scared and shocked, i cried.

then i tuned in to the news and caught the dragonboaters' funeral-memorial. teared some more.
it hit me even harder now, for i could relate better with their shocked families now.

why is life so scary. these people were literally snatched away from existence. previously people i know passed away peacefully, or after some period of terminal illness, not like that. not like suddenly, not like living life as per normal one moment and have it all taken away from you the very next.

and thats why i fear death.

Labels: life