People leave when the time arrives.
My Granpa passed away exactly one week before I turned 21.
I was rushing my final project for my minor course in the 24 hours library in the midnight. And I received the call from my dad. He asked me to stay calm, and I did.
I was very calm, as I had mentally prepared for this coming for almost 1 month.
He was sick. Right after Chinese New Year, his stomach bloated and was full of water, his body failed to eliminate those water due to misfunction of some of his organs. He admitted to the hospital, and I learnt something through the hospital.
Doctor's duty is to treat you, but whether you cold successfully recover from that, it's totally up to you.
And being a teacher I could feel this well; Teacher's duty is to teach, but whether the students understand the message of the lesson, it's totally up to respective students.
I really do not understand why the bloated stomach could take away his life. I thought everything will be alright as long as he undergoes the surgery. But things got worse after that.
Until 9th of April, we, no actually his children no we, they decided to bring him back to his old house and take care of him by themselves. The old house is in Serdang, Kedah. 1 hour and half if you drive from Penang Island. And his children basically travel there 3 days a week in turn to take care of him.
Time flies when you're busy with a lot of shits in university. While struggling hard to balance myself within academic, work and family, I spent most of my time in replacing my dad's duty in his restaurant which near to my university. I did my project and assignments there, as well as studying for all those tests for the subject that I never listen to the lectures.
And one day my dad called and said: prepare yourself. We knew what did it mean. I was having a drama presentation at that time when I received the call, and broke down into tears immediately while I found it was hard to me to tell that the day finally came. But he was still there with worse condition, until last Wednesday. He passed away.
Driving back home at 5.30am right after finishing my video project, I asked my mother to drive back to Granpa's house for another 1 and half hours. We were calm and we said finally he was free from the suffer and pain.
But as soon as we reached the house, seeing his body lying lifelessly on the floor, dressing up smartly in the blue coat which I never see him wearing this type of attire in the past 20 years in my life, we saw our Granma was grieving and tired. And my tears pooled up in my eyes.
For 3 days 2 nights, we were there for the funeral and ritual performance. The first night was mournful and unforgettable for me. We were chatting and praying for him, and the Sifu, who was a friend of Granpa told us things that we should do next to move on from his departure. And there were some words from him that I could never forget in my life.
"The only thing that one left in this world right after his departure, is his spirit and principles. As the child and grandchild of him, you should always remember and embrace his spirit and values, live on and continue the principles that he taught you for his life."
My grandpa was an athelete when he was young. He was handsome and well-mannered. From what I remember, the things that he concerned the most were always our performance in the school. He would be really happy and proud whenever we told him our outstanding performance in the school in terms of class ranking, and also great curriculum participation. He owned a grocery shop in the town, and was always with his big and black abacus. He taught me how to speak 1 to 10 in Tamil, and also how to use abacus to calculate money. He brushed up my calculating skills by doing practice with me in the store, and always brought us ice-cream or junk food that my grandma won't allow us to eat much.
He likes to play around with my brother by showing his arm muscle. The muscle could move up and down to left and right, and we would be delighted and said there was a mouse living under his arm.
I couldn't remember when exactly he started to get old. He underwent a major surgery for his heart arteries, and lost a lot of weight right after that. He became quieter and less energetic as he did last time, but he will still ask a lot about my academic and showed me the scholarship advertisement that he found in the newspaper and encourage me to apply.
He reared a black cat in his grocery shop before. He always kept some fish after his lunch to feed the cat. My grandma would scold him for bring too much flesh for the cat instead of bones and waste the money to feed it. But he enjoyed doing that until the cat passed away. I couldn't remember when.
He taught my brother and I to play tortoise card and also danzhap (means wait for ten) during the Chinese new year. My family do not smoke, gamble and drink alcohol, not even during Chinese New year. However there was once my uncle brought a Whiskey(or some alcohol else but I couldn't remember the name). I was so curious about the taste and wanna try for some. My dad didn't allow, but my grandpa said "Aiya, just let her try a bit so that she know how does it taste as long as she don't drunk." Of course I never tell him I tasted alcohol before and I didn't get drunk easily.
There aren't too much memories between my Grandpa and I, but I know how much he loves me. As the eldest grandchild in the family, he was always proud of me and never ever bias to anyone of us just because of our gender. I could remember how excited he was to call my parents to ask about my result for every main exam I had: UPSR, PMR and SPM.
I couldn't accept his departure as I always thought that he was just resting or napping. It is hard to believe that he had leave us forever.
But there aren't anything for me to do if I stay and doesn't move on from his departure. I believed what he wants is to see his children be successful and happy for their life.
Knowing what is his hope towards me, I will work harder and live humbly for my life, just like what he had done for his entire life.
Rest in peace to my dearest grandpa. Let's meet again next time.
My Granpa passed away exactly one week before I turned 21.
I was rushing my final project for my minor course in the 24 hours library in the midnight. And I received the call from my dad. He asked me to stay calm, and I did.
I was very calm, as I had mentally prepared for this coming for almost 1 month.
He was sick. Right after Chinese New Year, his stomach bloated and was full of water, his body failed to eliminate those water due to misfunction of some of his organs. He admitted to the hospital, and I learnt something through the hospital.
Doctor's duty is to treat you, but whether you cold successfully recover from that, it's totally up to you.
And being a teacher I could feel this well; Teacher's duty is to teach, but whether the students understand the message of the lesson, it's totally up to respective students.
I really do not understand why the bloated stomach could take away his life. I thought everything will be alright as long as he undergoes the surgery. But things got worse after that.
Until 9th of April, we, no actually his children no we, they decided to bring him back to his old house and take care of him by themselves. The old house is in Serdang, Kedah. 1 hour and half if you drive from Penang Island. And his children basically travel there 3 days a week in turn to take care of him.
Time flies when you're busy with a lot of shits in university. While struggling hard to balance myself within academic, work and family, I spent most of my time in replacing my dad's duty in his restaurant which near to my university. I did my project and assignments there, as well as studying for all those tests for the subject that I never listen to the lectures.
And one day my dad called and said: prepare yourself. We knew what did it mean. I was having a drama presentation at that time when I received the call, and broke down into tears immediately while I found it was hard to me to tell that the day finally came. But he was still there with worse condition, until last Wednesday. He passed away.
Driving back home at 5.30am right after finishing my video project, I asked my mother to drive back to Granpa's house for another 1 and half hours. We were calm and we said finally he was free from the suffer and pain.
But as soon as we reached the house, seeing his body lying lifelessly on the floor, dressing up smartly in the blue coat which I never see him wearing this type of attire in the past 20 years in my life, we saw our Granma was grieving and tired. And my tears pooled up in my eyes.
For 3 days 2 nights, we were there for the funeral and ritual performance. The first night was mournful and unforgettable for me. We were chatting and praying for him, and the Sifu, who was a friend of Granpa told us things that we should do next to move on from his departure. And there were some words from him that I could never forget in my life.
"The only thing that one left in this world right after his departure, is his spirit and principles. As the child and grandchild of him, you should always remember and embrace his spirit and values, live on and continue the principles that he taught you for his life."
My grandpa was an athelete when he was young. He was handsome and well-mannered. From what I remember, the things that he concerned the most were always our performance in the school. He would be really happy and proud whenever we told him our outstanding performance in the school in terms of class ranking, and also great curriculum participation. He owned a grocery shop in the town, and was always with his big and black abacus. He taught me how to speak 1 to 10 in Tamil, and also how to use abacus to calculate money. He brushed up my calculating skills by doing practice with me in the store, and always brought us ice-cream or junk food that my grandma won't allow us to eat much.
He likes to play around with my brother by showing his arm muscle. The muscle could move up and down to left and right, and we would be delighted and said there was a mouse living under his arm.
I couldn't remember when exactly he started to get old. He underwent a major surgery for his heart arteries, and lost a lot of weight right after that. He became quieter and less energetic as he did last time, but he will still ask a lot about my academic and showed me the scholarship advertisement that he found in the newspaper and encourage me to apply.
He reared a black cat in his grocery shop before. He always kept some fish after his lunch to feed the cat. My grandma would scold him for bring too much flesh for the cat instead of bones and waste the money to feed it. But he enjoyed doing that until the cat passed away. I couldn't remember when.
He taught my brother and I to play tortoise card and also danzhap (means wait for ten) during the Chinese new year. My family do not smoke, gamble and drink alcohol, not even during Chinese New year. However there was once my uncle brought a Whiskey(or some alcohol else but I couldn't remember the name). I was so curious about the taste and wanna try for some. My dad didn't allow, but my grandpa said "Aiya, just let her try a bit so that she know how does it taste as long as she don't drunk." Of course I never tell him I tasted alcohol before and I didn't get drunk easily.
There aren't too much memories between my Grandpa and I, but I know how much he loves me. As the eldest grandchild in the family, he was always proud of me and never ever bias to anyone of us just because of our gender. I could remember how excited he was to call my parents to ask about my result for every main exam I had: UPSR, PMR and SPM.
I couldn't accept his departure as I always thought that he was just resting or napping. It is hard to believe that he had leave us forever.
But there aren't anything for me to do if I stay and doesn't move on from his departure. I believed what he wants is to see his children be successful and happy for their life.
Knowing what is his hope towards me, I will work harder and live humbly for my life, just like what he had done for his entire life.
Rest in peace to my dearest grandpa. Let's meet again next time.
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