Mum's dear fiend and colleague

"I'm not going to cry now... These thirty years as colleagues, friends, all these memories. Going mountain climbing, going shopping, going for afternoon tea, going for meditation. You never shed a tear, even as you went though so much difficulties..."

Mum last saw this friend of over thirty years back in February. I was there when she came to visit back then. This time, mum is no longer here. 

She cried as she said all those words before mum's shrine. When I called her up the other day and told her about mum's passing, she was ever so grateful. But I know they are very close, and that they only grew apart because mum's friend's own mother has been very sickly these past five years. I know exactly how much of a burden it weighs on your shoulders to take care of a sick parent.

She sat with us for a few hours in the living room, where whenever guests come, I hook up my computer to the big TV screen and let the slideshow containing mum's pictures run. That way, people can see mum in all different poses, at different times, see how she has changed, see how she has kept that smile of hers, even though in the background we know she is hurting and in great discomfort, even though behind the scenes, cancer is lurking around.

The auntie saw my brother and I grow up, for my brother is thirty-two this year, and mum began working at the office where she met this auntie around the same time three decades ago. "Your mother is such a dear friend. She never cried or complained. She never let us know anything, and swallowed her own pain..." Yes, that was my dear, brave mother.

At the end of the visit, the friend wrote on a piece of paper a few words for mum: "Kind, compassionate, warm spirited". These are the memories this auntie has when she thinks of mum. And these words, these memories will join a dozen others to commemorate a remarkable human being, who passed on too soon...