A primary classmate of mine, whom I’m close with during that trouble-free childhood life, passed away when I was doing my internship training. We were just 21 years old that time, and the news hit me hard because it wasn’t that long ago that we just chat and it caught me by surprise. I couldn’t recall the exact cause of his death but I had a feeling that it was either due to cancer or extreme high fever. I shall refer him as K for this post.
………………………………………….
Last Sunday, another close friend of mine in primary school had a wedding and he invited most of our classmates to celebrate with him on his special day. My family and I arrived at the event at lunch time and I quickly scanned around the hall, trying to find all those familiar faces. That was when I noticed a particular family, K’s family, sitting at the leftmost corner of the hall. I’m not sure whether will they still recognize me if they saw me, but I immediately avoid from making eye contact with them. I feel bad doing this but I just don’t know what to say to them or what topic to talk about. I’m afraid that if I were to talk to them, I would accidentally bring up the topic about their dead son, which would make the situation worse. I continued trying to find for my other primary classmate but none show up. All of the guests are strangers to us. We end up sit somewhere in middle and once in a while, I would steal a glance at K’s family, too see how they are doing.
About an hour later, they finally decided to leave and went back home. And till then, none have yet to show up. I don’t have a family of my own yet but I’m quite sure that it’s not an easy task to attend your son’s friend’s wedding, without having thoughts of how your son will look like or progress in life if he were still alive today.
Attending that wedding do open my eyes again, making me realize once more that everytime I managed to wake up in the morning, it’s already a gift.
Yeon Ciat's Space 