“Pa is not doing too well, Ma asked you guys to come over now”
That was the sms my abang and I got when we were having our breakfast in the hospital canteen. We had just saw Pa before going down to the canteen. Immediately we rushed to the ICU where he had been staying for the past few days. Upon reaching there, we found Ma, NL, my eldest brother in law who just flew back from Australia on that morning itself and Girl (my youngest sister in law) were in tears. It seemed the doctor had told them that he was not going to make it this time.
I could see his irregular heartrate on the monitor and it kept going lower and lower from 40 bpm to 20 bpm to 10 bpm and then up again to 20. We were all silently praying that another miracle would happened and that he would survive this episode.
Suddenly the room door opened and CL cried, “Thank you Pa for waiting for us!” CL who is my youngest brother in law, LT his wife and YK, their daughter who is my father in law’s favourite grand daughter, had just rushed from home to the hospital after receiving Girl’s call.
Eventhough Pa was heavily sedated, and attached to the life supporting system , it seemed he was aware of the surrounding as each time when his heartrate was going towards zero and Ma whispered to him, his heartrate will go up again. It was like he is still lingering around, undecided whether to leave or to stay.
“Pa, don’t leave! You have not had any grandson yet! So, you can’t leave just yet!” I cried, trying to persuade him not to give up. Then Ma said, “Ya, Darling, you wanted a grandson, right, so you must not go!” Everyone was crying and looking at the heart rate monitor fearfully, fearful that the figure would turned zero.
After struggling for some time, Ma finally whispered to him, “Darling, if you want to go, you may go….” And with Ma’s consent, Pa breathed his last breath and the heartrate monitor fell to zero with the fearful sound toot………………..
My whole world came tumbling down at that moment. My beloved Pa has left us and I felt like going with him. As a Christian, I know he was going to heaven, where he no longer has to endure any pain and suffering that he had for 18 long years (from kidney failure). However, how long more do i need to wait before I could ever see him again??? I wanted to die at that moment… He was a father that I have never had and he had loved me and cared for me, even more than my own father. I had a joyful relationship with him. I love to care for him, to make tea for him, to do foot massage for him and to do whatever that he wanted me to do. Whatever he asked of me, I would always happily obliged.
Since he had been in and out of the hospital very often towards the end of his life, I was optimistic and believed that he could recover and be home again with us. I told myself that when he was discharged, we would moved back home to spend more time with him. However, he never came home. I have always regret not being able to speak to him before he slipped into coma. There was no last word from him, none…
Today is the exact day 8 years ago he went home to the Lord. Eventhough he is no longer with us, but his memory lives on and he is always in our hearts and our mind.
Pa, we missed you dearly and we hope to see you soon…
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