So this is it

So this is it. The inevitable circle of life. The unbearable heartbreak. The sudden goodbye. The cries and tears. The funeral and the heavyhearted cremation ceremony. All these have taken a fine man away from my family, and left us only with sweet memories.

No, I didn't get to say goodbye to him, to my uncle. We called him 五叔 (pronounced as "mm soak" in Cantonese), it means the 5th Uncle.

Have you ever watched any Hong Kong drama series about family melodrama with a 1970-80s background setting? If you have, it'll give you a clearer and better picture about where I'm coming from. Yup, exactly like those typical huge family shown in those HK drama series. We all lived under the same roof, and when I say we I mean 6 uncles plus their wives (including my mum & dad), 3 aunts, and my grandparents. Those days were before I was born. As far as I could recall, 2 aunts moved out later to venture their futures in other regions, their braveness and adventure spirits made more room for their brothers to have children; then, I was born into this big family.

As time evolved, more grandchildren were brought into the family and more rooms were built to accommodate the expanding family tree; the house was getting crowded than ever. Well, that equally means more conflicts, more politics, and more dramas too. But those dramas only applied to adults, we children, or at least to me, actually adored the special closeness, the strong bond, and of course the happening environment too. Imagine having different uncles treating you ice-cream every weekend, how awesome! And among all the uncles, my 5th Uncle was the most generous one (and very humorous too). He loves all his nephews and nieces wholeheartedly. You know, during CNY, he will bring us to the grocery store, which was 10 mins from our house, and spend 100 bucks solely on fireworks for us.

(Wrote a few more paragraphs about my childhood stories with my 5th uncle, but I decided to delete them instead. I'm trying not to get too emotional into this as I know my family members are probably reading this too. So, I think I better stop. Forgive me for the unstructured flow of this post.)

Even though my mum has helped me deliver my condolence and sympathy to my 5th Aunt, I still hope to make the least effort to thank my uncle for being so helpful, so caring and overly kind to my family all these while. We would never ever repay his kindness and will forever owe him his generosity and his thoughtfulness.

Goodbye, 五叔. May you rest in peace. And please say hi to grandma if you meet her in heaven, which I know you surely will.



Love,
Bev