Death
'Learn To Love What You Have!'
During the summer of 2001, I have taken a summer course named Death and Dying. The class which ran for two nights a week for five weeks has taught me more about death than anything that I have come across for the passed twenty years. It opened up my eyes on things that I have never thought about nor did I wish to discuss among others. It was also the reason why this page about death come about. |
Death in many cases is a forbiddened subject in conversations that is catergorized as a morbid topic. However, it is of natural cause and I believe that it is better to learn to live with it rather than leave it aside as something not important. This section is more of a recollection on events where I had to deal with death so the memories of the deceased will live on forever. |
The first time I deal with death was when I was ten. My cousin died of cancer, he was twenty. I did not know him that well since I only met him once when I was a kid and lived in his house (another floor) about half a year before he had to stay in the hospital. Then one day we received a phone call from the hospital saying that he died... At first I did not feel of anything, but as we were going to the funeral a few days later and gotten to see the body, I realized that I was never going to see him again... Only a few months back, I was in his living room watching TV with him, and he was laughing... I remember joking in front of my aunt and uncle saying that I was prepared because I bought tons of tissue with me. I saw my uncle and aunt crack a smile but I never knew how bad that must have been to them... |
I didn't realize how different things can be until my second time experiencing death in the family, my aunt died from lung cancer and she was half way across the world. However, that experience was more intense perhaps because when I was in HK we used to go to her place a lot. She was a very friendly person and she cared about me a lot... like a son because they do not have any children. We went back to HK a few years later and we went to pay our respects and during our stay, we stayed at my uncle's place who was her husband. I can't help but image all the good times I had in his place when I was young and all the things that have happened. Til this day, sometimes I still think about her and the good times I had when I was a kid... |
I never realized mourning can take such a long time. It is something that is going to stay with me until the day I die. We have to learn to live with it and not let it control us. |
I have gathered some information that has to deal with death or the dying process. Hopefully it will help for those who are confused about the subject or refreshing the memory for those who knew: |
| A Parable of Immortality - Henry Van Dyke |
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!" "Gone where?" Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: "Here she comes!" |