lessons in death

someone's pain was taken away very suddenly on monday morning...

his lifeless body now rests serenely in a coffin, seperated from the rest of us by a sheen of glass...

but he rests peacefully in the arms of God, who calls him a loyal servant...

that's my grandfather.

*********************

there are many lessons to be learnt, even at a funeral, though some are so darn secular and silly i should be slapped for thinking about it... some random thoughts..

1. i wonder whether i'll ever have so many lovely, beautiful wreaths at my funeral, so many people who'd remember me... i mean, i know it ain't very useful when you're dead, but.. it's just very beautiful... (is this morbid?)

you can actually find such beauty at a funeral. the flowers fill the air with a sweet fragance akin to one walking in a nursery, with flowers bursting in colour at all sides...

2. funerals can bring a family back together... this is one time in a very long time that I have managed to talk to alot of my relatives, cousins and aunts and uncles for as long as I want, and just chit-chat about things and care about each other... i really miss those days actually, when the bond between families was so strong...

3. you don't just buy white tops for fun. like $5 stuff from baleno then throw them away the next day. HONESTLY.

white tops are a rare commodity in everyone's cupboard i guess, so that's probably why me and my sis went to buy white tops today. my sis laid down very strictg instructions that it had to be a PURE WHITE top, so my montral tee failed, unless i cut out the canada flags lah -_-

there are 2 ways to go about buying white tees. one is to go to a pasar-malan and buy 3 for $15 type of tees and wear them for the duration of the wake then treat them as rags.

the other is to think of how to accessorise them into your normal wear and then buy some slightly more expensive but then more wearable clothes. I did that... but dunno whether it'll work out or I would have just wasted more money.. but don't think so lah... one will be used whilst playing badminton, the other can be used as an overcoat for other shirts... so there..

so.. the 3rd point is a lil' ridiculous... so i better stop..

i'm glad my family members are pretty consoled liao, no extreme disconsolate scenes of people throwing themselves at the coffin and weeping.

guess we'll leave that for the last day.

frank