23 Nov 05

Today, my father-in-law passed away peacefully in hospital.

He was a honest man, worked hard, and because of his limited education, slaved away at a menial job for most of his life, and managed to bring up six children.

He was a quiet man, almost too quiet for his own good. He did not complained much, until the pain became too unbearable, and he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The doctors gave him two to three weeks to live out his life, at most. A week and a few days after the diagnosis, he was gone.

The last Sunday I visited him, his eyes were dulled, like a dead fish's. He had difficulty eating, managing only sips of liquid.

God bless his kind soul. Maybe it was better this way, a release from the sufferings.

R.I.P.

No one notices the fallen dead leaves on a forest floor.

It is not the majestic trunks of great trees that had fallen.

But to Mother Nature rebuilding the world,

it is these leaves that matter.

23.11.05