When Organs Fall Apart.....(5)

It helps that although I am not a vegetarian I have always preferred fruits, vegetables, tofu and eggs to meat. Hence, now with my illness, taking lots of organic vegetables and fruits is like second nature to me. Gosh! I feel like a new person, and it shows in my glowing and rosy complexion. Hence, when friends visited me, they were surprised I looked healthy. Now that we are on the subject of complexion, let me digress a little. Perhaps my siblings and I should thank our parents for the inheritance of trouble-free complexion. However, it was papa who somehow had shown me the importance of having good facial complexion. He had somehow compared a good complexion to a well-polished marble floor. When the marble floor is well-polished, it enhances the whole ambiance. Hence, when we have good, shining complexion, there is little if hardly any necessity for anyone to put on make up.

I still remembered how papa had once demonstrated gathering the early morning dews in his palms and using the cool dews to wash his face. He described the dews as "God's natural cosmetics!" Hence, whenever I accompanied papa on his early morning walks to our favourite haunt at Bukit Dumbar in Penang, we would gather the dews and apply them onto our face. Being frugal, I never spent money on branded cosmetics, but on simple stuffs like Hazeline Snow, bedak sejok (cold powder) and of course, the complimentary dews on the fields. Till now I use only the basics - cleanser and moisturiser. Gifts of lipsticks, eye-shadows, compact powder, etc. are recycled as gifts to others because it is pointless for me to use them, because they get washed away by perspiration and excess moisture!

So much ado about keeping one's complexion in a clear state. Now, back to food....yes, I am not all that angelic....sometimes I yearned to have some local delicacies and hence when sister-in-law cooked some mee goreng, I ate some with relish, and once I asked for toasted bread with a lightly fried egg and some fresh tomatoes sandwich. Amazing how forbidden fruits always taste the sweetest!

After sister-in-law returned to Penang, my second sister Ean arrived from Melbourne. I felt so loved by my siblings, relatives and felt touched by the visits of many friends and associates. My two older brothers constantly phoned me from overseas to check on my condition.

Thank you Lord for your love and for all my loved ones. Bless each and everyone of them.

Gan Cao