Believe it or not

I'm back from my from Genting, and I really enjoyed myself there with all the amusement rides and everything. Pictures are on the way but for now, I will refrain from posting anything happy.

This is because my uncle just passed away tonight, 25/10/2006. I was there in Tan Tok Seng Hospital, visiting him for the last and final time.

At about 10pm, I felt a weird presence (something like a tingling sensation of the hairs at the back of the neck + sudden chill of the air) and soon after that, my uncle closed his eyes. He resumed breathing but did not move and his body became very pale.

I hardly knew my third uncle. There were many historical incidents that happened in my family to cause a very big rift between the older generation and the younger generation. All I knew about my third uncle, was that he was a gangster in the younger years, and he has connections in the black and white world.

In my father's side family, only my grandma is the most senior person around, followed by my big aunt, my father, my second uncle, third uncle and small aunt. Small family, but not very closely knit.

Come to think of it, I hardly knew most of my relatives, except their names and perhaps their faces. When my big aunt's husband passed away, I wasn't there, but I remembered him to be a jovial person who treats people very nice. His nickname was "Blackie" because of his dark skin.

Birth, Aging, Sickness and Death

生老病死 - The four stages of life that every human being has to go through. Though I say that I'm a free-thinker, I do think a lot into the buddhist teachings and understand them. I wasn't sad when I felt my uncle leave, but I was sad that he had to go through the suffering (liver cancer) before he passed on. The look of suffering was very unbearable.

My third aunt and my two cousins cried their hearts out, and I really felt for them. Until now, I still feel their grief. I'm not scared of death and not saddened by the fact that people die, it is all a natural process and everyone is subjected to the four stages.

I will treasure those around me and make sure I won't regret in the future in case anything happens. Life is short, you have to treasure it and make the most out of it.

p.s.: I will post the pics after the weekend, in the meantime, I'll just get over this incident first.