January 22nd, 2007... Monday...
Went to work... Hurriedly I scrambled into the office onto my desk... Like every other day I turned on my computer to clear my emails. As the computer starts up, I made myself a cup of coffee. I sit down at my desk and started my day.
It was a usual Monday morning, just like every other Monday. I felt a bit tired due to the prolong lack of sleep. My movements and reactions were slower that day.
Everyone in the office were talking about the decease of a colleague since they step into the office. But yet I was like a cold-blooded animal siting at my desk minding my own business. Well, one, I was pretty "stone" that day I didn't know or bother to find out what is the whole commotion all about. And two, I barely know who Mr Ang is. He works in another office. See, I am in the line of agriculture, the next office is 100 metres away. I have met him in the vicinity before but I didn't know he is Mr Ang.
Anyway, Mr Ang died of hypertension. Last Friday, he was at work in his office. To cut long story short, Mr Ang fell off his chair all of a sudden. Some say he fainted, some say he knock his head on the ground. Some say he died on the spot, some say he died in the hospital. (This is how human pass messages. There are always more or less than what is suppose to be the truth.) Anyway, Mr Lee, who sat beside Mr Ang picked his up from the floor and ask if he needed to be sent to the doctor. However, Mr Ang refused. He sat in his chair and rest for a while and carry on with what he was doing. Stories were said that on that night he went back and felt that something not right. He admitted to hospital and died there due to hypertension. There were also stories that said one of his artery in his brain burst and cause his death.
Ok... I have finished my introduction... So now the fact here is that Mr Ang died... It was said that he often come over this office to chat and have a coffee break with the workers at the worker's pantry. So I establish the fact that he should be quite close to all the "old-birds" here in this office.
Mr Ang was a quiet man. Yet his death made him top the "most talk-about" chart overnight. All day long, the whole of Monday and Tuesday, his death was the most talk about topic in the office. Words from all these men uttered, were about how much Mr Ang was miss, how unfortunate he was and how life have no certainty, one day you are around, the other day you just lie beneath the ground. Yet somehow, behind those humane words, I felt that there was a different spirit.
Something tells me that all the deeds and words was just a show. Something tells me that his 30 years of friendship built was built on sand. Most of them went to the wake that day. Yet some of them visited the Singapore Pools before heading to the funeral if you know what I mean.
Some of them speaks of his death with a spirit of pride as if they had triumph over death, and even when death approaches there is nothing to fear. Nothing to fear? That really depends on where you are heading my friend.
Witnessing what I witnessed was indeed a tragedy. A tragic tale of a man who died leaving how many good friends behind. A tragic sight of men, of the ugly nature that I just have had to experience again. A tragic moment, a moment of truth that shows the vulnerability of man.
I begin to ask myself what is the most important thing in this lifetime? What memories can I bring to heaven with? What kind of tale do I want to leave behind? How will I die? Will I complete Creation before I leave?
Isn't true friends what is most important in one's lifetime? Isn't friendship the only thing you bring with you to the new heaven? Don't you want to leave a legacy of tales about how a true friend you are by many? Don't you want to die knowing that you have completed your race?
Indeed, "When you know how you die, you begin to know how to live" ~ Tuesdays with Morrie.
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