Heng Sheau Jing

A good friend of mine passed away last week.

She had a problem with her heart since young, and recently at age 32 went into the hospital to do a corrective surgery. The surgery was a success but on the last day of discharge she fainted for a while (15 mins) and oxygen was cut off from the brain. When the nurses discovered, she was already in a coma. On the 4th day of coma the doctor declared her brain dead and on the 5th day the family decided to remove the system upon doctor’s advice. That day at about 9 pm she was pronounced dead.

We were friends in school and in the same activity group together. I even went for a trip to UK with her and kept in touch after school. All of these happened so fast that you even wonder if this is real. Now what makes it so un real is that:

- the last time I saw her she was still in her usual chirpy self, and the next time I saw her she was motionless and could not even hear us
- She went into the hospital an abled person, expecting to have a high success rate on her surgery, which is why she didn’t tell so many people. Now it is the very place that is causing her death

Her death is so sudden that even today I still feel that she is around. Just before I recieved news of her coma, her MSN was still online with a smiley face. When I scroll pass my mobile contact list and I see her number, it feels like I still can call her for a chat. And when I read her blog, it just tears to my eyes because she had so many dreams ahead of her.

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-YRPnabQ5fqhLqGfMmdo-?cq=1

The quickness of her death in less than 6 days remind me of how God made the world in 6 days. It is a firm reminder how God has the power to make us and to take us away as fast. It is a reminder to treasure what we have, and live each day as if it were our last, in a Christian sense. Whenever this sort of things happen to your loved ones, you always felt that you should have spent more time with that person, so dont hesitate to pick up the phone and just ask how your friend is doin.

She was always saying where she wanna travel and what she wanna do before she dies. I am not sure if she knew it was coming and if she was trying to tell us something. But all this doesnt matter any more. If you knew that you were going to die tomorrow, your career planning doesnt matter anymore, how much money you have doesnt matter anymore, what you eat for dinner doesnt matter anymore..

When I saw her lying on the bed in the ICU from a distance she seemed like she was sleeping. It was only I went up to her face looked at her lifeless face that I realised she is really dying. And when I saw her in the coffin, she seemed peaceful.

For the longest time, we were trying our means to share God with her, and she always says that she is not ready. But I heard from a friend that she did say the sinner's prayer one day in Church, and I hope that God heard here and brought her to heaven.

She was a cheerful girl, and only had good things to say about everybody. Always a big sister to a lot of us partly because she was 1.78 m tall. I remember in school I was really down because of girl problems and results and she said this to me till I remember to this day:

'Lester, you are stronger that you think you are.'

Till today whenever I am faced with a problem I still remmeber her words, and that there was this friend who cared enough to tell me this.

Goodbye my friend, and I hope you are stronger than you think you are too. Too bad you could not even hear my last words to you..but I am happy for you that you have returned to the Creator. You are in a better place.