only one life, live it
Thursday morning last week, there was a loud banging on my next-door neighbour’s front door. It was still dark. A few aunties from the neighbourhood were yelling outside. In my half sleep I still knew something was not right. Huang-mama would have been with the aunties- her taichi and hangout buddies. Why were they making so much noise outside her house?
I took off my earplugs and heard them calling “Ah Yong’s son!! Wake Up!!”. Curiouser.
I woke my mom up as she has Huang-mama’s home number. The phone rang and rang but no one picked up.
It was about time for my other next-door neighbour, Auntie Wong, to join the din. I would be surprised if she was not there. Mom and Auntie Wong found out that Huang-mama took a sudden fall during taichi, and white foam came out of her mouth. I thought it was seizure….
Mom and Auntie Wong went to SJMC, someone got a hold of Uncle Huang. It turned out, Huang-mama had a stroke. A blood vessel broke and blood flooded her brains. She was transfer to KLGH, where they drained the blood but did not operate.
Huang-mama went into coma and never woke up. Uncle Huang told mom she passed away this afternoon just before five.
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Monday before that was my first day back at work. Granddad was cremated on Sunday and I drove back soon after the cremation. As I was getting into the car, Huang-mama called me. She had collected our mails from the week when we were away. We also always give her a set of our house-keys for any just-in-case. She apologized she was not around to collect the registered mail for me- I said it is OK, I will go to the post depot.
“How is your granddad?”
“Oh, he passed away already. The cremation was yesterday”
“Wow, so quickly!”
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I like Huang-mama a lot. I won’t share my life story with her because all the aunties she was friends with. But I like her a-whole-lot more than Auntie Wong. Not that I dislike Auntie Wong, but it’s just the wavelength problem.
Auntie Wong is always at her front yard doing something. I thought she was always trying to ambush us into a conversation and she can get quite personal. She once told my sister, when she was 16 (repeat, 16), that a girl do not need to pursue a career, only a nice man that will take care of her. Sis smartly just smiled and said she needed to go to college.
I always try to get into the car in a seemingly hurried manner. Auntie Wong actually has a daughter my brother’s age and a son my sis’ age. So it’s not like she has no one to bother. In fact, her daughter has been going out with this guy for some months now. I know because his car always blocks our parking spot. One day as I was in the kitchen, I heard Auntie Wong humming the Wedding March!! I told sis it must have been her dream come true to have her daughter almost settled down so young in life. A nice young man to take care of her!
I digress.
Huang-mama was a good cook. I like her cooking. I used to go to her house for lunch all through high school. When mom was discharged from the hospital and could not cook, we catered from Huang-mama and I actually looked forward to coming home for dinner.
Huang-mama babysat my sister for years. That’s how we called her Huang-mama. My sister was so close to her that Sis was like the daughter Huang-mama never had. The first person I thought of when I knew about Huang-mama was my sis.
Huang-mama was very pretty. She was 66 but she looked 56. Or younger. She showed me pictures of herself as a young girl before. She was indeed a very beautiful girl. And I had wondered how Uncle Huang managed to get her. She also showed me a newspaper clipping of a half-man half-fish that was found near her hometown in Kemaman, Terengganu. She had kept that picture.
They have two grown up sons, both older than I. The younger son is the cuter one. But the last time I saw him was over ten years ago. He left for the States seven years back and before that, I was in the States. He recently got married, last November, and Huang-mama and Uncle Huang went over for his wedding. That was the first time in seven years they were united.
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It turned out that the ‘stroke’ was not one. The doctor said Huang-mama could have died twenty years ago. That blood vessel was leaking. So very little by little, and it took its toll last Thursday.
Uncle Huang is now left with his eldest son who isn’t a very good son (not saying he is a bad person but Huang-mama used to complain about him). He must love her so much. She was one of those very few lovable people- very easy to love.
I will miss seeing her in the morning when I go to work. I will miss the noisy chatter of her friends at the door. I will miss her asking the little boy she babysat to wave at ‘jie-jie’
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What can I say that two sudden deaths don’t already say?
