Please Give me Bouquets......

One evening my staff, Judy, at Rialto told me she was going to a wake after work at the restaurant. I usually dropped her off at her home afer work. I asked her where the wake was and who had died. She told me it was the wake of a loan shark, and the wake was just nearby. Intriqued, I decided to go with Judy because I had never been to a wake of a loanshark. I wanted to observe the happenings.

It was interesting to note during the two hours I was at the wake that not a negative word was said of the deceased. In fact, only praises were heaped on him.... how kind he was to certain people; how he sometimes even cancelled the debts of some desolate creditors and how good a boss he was to his staff. His children claimed that he was a good husband and father as well.

Readers may ask why I write about such morbid stuff so early in the morning. My ears started ringing again. It had been ringing the past two weeks and I was happy when the ringing stopped. Alas for only one day. Hence when the ringing started again this morning, I wondered if my ears were cancerous. My ENT specialist, Mr. Thomas Sim, had found nothing wrong with the outer ears, and suspected the problem to be in the inner ears. My imgaination started to run wild. Indeed if I were do die of cancer at half a century, I would still thank God for letting me surivive 5 decades on earth.! For us who are Christians, death has no sting.

I am sure at my wake, the same would happen for me as it did for the deceased loanshark. People would only heap bouquets on me. How nice if we could do this everyday of our life. Instead of criticising and back-stabbing another person, why not look for good things to say about the person. A nasty person like a loanshark would also have some good points. We take life and things for granted. This is probably why my pastor, Derek Hong, said that it is good to sometimes go to a wake for we will be confronted with the reality and issues of death. Frankly I hate to go to wakes. I would prefer to be nice to a person while he is still alive and be a blessing to him as much as I can.

Hence, my dear acquaintances, friends and relatives, please give me bouqets when I am still alive..... please don't give me flower or verbal bouquets when I am in the coffin for I will not be able to hear or appreciate you....

Ganchau