Saturday, July 28, 2007

the poignant moment

A poignant moment.

Imagine you are the 70 years old lady sitting as in the picture looking at your cake while your family of husband, 1 ex-husband, 4 children, 7 grandchildren, relatives and friends singing "the happy birthday song" from the ten-table dinner that your beloved son had kindly organised.

Earlier in the day, you have to be reminded again and again by your grandchildren to prepare to go for your birthday dinner. Your beloved daughter-in-law had brought you to the hairdresser earlier in the day. You have to struggle into the few pieces of "big occassion" clothes.

During the dinner that night, you were moving from table to table, holding tightly to ang pows pushed into your hands from all directions from so-called relatives you could no longer remember where or how they got to know you.

You overheard someone talking about you. That person said you used to play mahjong at his place quite regularly. He said you refused to take taxi home despite your age and "lateness" after the mahjong session so as not to let the taxi drivers earn the few dollars from you.

Tears roll down your cheek. Is that how you want to be remembered by your friends and relatives when you pass off later to another world?

P/S - The purely fictional story above applies to both sexes.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Edgar,

y leh? the story must include 1 ex-husband? is it the norm????

Anonymous said...

Wow...the 70 year old lady looks so contented & she is so fortunate to have "zi sun man tang"(many children & grandchildren)....is the story really fictional?

Anonymous said...

y ex-husband? shouldn't it be husband & wife chang2 xiang1 si1 shou3 dao4 lao3?

Edgar Wong said...

Why ex-husband? Why not? Will be quite fashionable in the future.

Yes it is fictional...

Anonymous said...

Why not a joyous moment?

The family, ex-husband, relatives & friends were all present for the occasion. It's definitely better than being alone in her old age.... juz curious anyway!