Bring a little cheer...

So life is pretty easy now...

But while enjoying this peace, one really should not take life for granted.

I went to visit some terminally ill patients at a hospice today...
All of these patients are suffering from cancer.
Whether it is the 1st or the last stage of cancer, there was a definite heaviness to the air there because they, and the rest of us know that they're waiting to die...

I know death will come to everyone someday and in some form, but to actually be given a limit of time to live?
Maybe I'd rather not know.
Then like everyone else, it'll come as a surprise, and God knows, I love surprises.

On second thoughts, knowing how much time I have left can be a blessing.
I won't leave my family and friends with unfinished business, I get to properly plan my departure like I'm going on a extended holiday to a place called Heaven, which is paradise I hear...

I don't know...

The patients at this particular hospice are all adults.
They looked like your regular 70 to 90 year old grandparents, just that they are, in actual fact, in their 40s to 60s...
Some were wearing those famed 'jap tourist' caps because of their loss of hair due to chemo...
I was told that the really skinny ones, the ones that looked like they could dodge raindrops, were already nearing their end...

I don't think that last bit of information helped at all...
While seeing them smile and laugh, I was already thinking of what awaited them...
It was heartbreaking...

While Mom was giving them leg massages, Jeremy and I organised Bingo for them.
Being Singapore, the numbers rolled had to be read out in 5 different languages.
English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Malay and Cantonese.
Most of them needed help with understanding when they won, so the myth that all old people can play Bingo, is a sham...

The best part of the whole thing was when they won.
You can really sense the joy they feel and you really, from the bottom of your shattered heart feel happy for them.
There were prizes of course, but I think what really made them smile, was the knowledge and proof that their happiness and existence matter.

I would go back again...
Really I would.
But the hardest part of going back would be...

Asking where a familiar face had gone...

Don't take life for granted.
It's fragile and very precious.
You only have 1 life to live...