Life and Death

Today we cremated a person and celebrate the birthday of another.

This afternoon, we cremated a nice old gentlemen. Unlike most funerals we attended, this one surprisingly there were not much wailing and crying from the relatives. Not that he was not loved. In fact, he was much loved by most people. Even for us, who only see him at most thrice a year (his and his wife's birthday and CNY), he was always jolly and kind with a twinkle in his eyes, the type of old man that people want to hug and protect - not the typical nagging old man. So why no tears for a nice old man. He has 7 children and countless grandchildren and great grand children. I counted total of 63 names listed in the Chinese Obituary. He was not rich rich (as in wealth) just a humble hawker but what he was rich in was love - both for others and others for him. So I think the best send off we can give for this grand old man is not to shed tears but to celebrate his rich life. RIP Ah Kong!

Tonight we celebrated the birthday of Alvin. He is now officially 16, after lagging behind his classmates for almost the whole year, he has finally caught up:). I pretty proud of this boy. Yesterday he got an early birthday present - a good progress award from the MOE(?). So far he has turned out well. Not very brilliant academically, he made up for it by studying hard especially the past 2 years. Despite being almost 1 year in age behind his classmates every year, he has not allow this to put him down and in fact has done better than most of his classmates. He is also the responsible one in the house, feeding the fish when even I got lazy at times. He has willingly took up a job while waiting for his results rather than staying at home with his new toys. Now my only wish for him is that he will be more active in sports. Happy birthday boy!