Muzic-Rox-My-World

Saturday, April 29, 2006

My Life 9

Something...traumatising happened today. I attended my uncle's cremation today and there were a lot of people there. Anyway, after the pastor finished his BORING speech, we made our way to the Mandai Crematorium. You cannot believe the luxury! The place looked like a millionaire country club from the outside and Changi Airport from the inside! Anyway, once we reached this chapel-like place, the pastor commented that he had never seen so many people in the place before, adding that my uncle had really done a lot of good deeds and everything.

Ok, so anyway, one of my aunts was coughing profusely on my right and my mother instigated me to give her the "Halls" sweet I had in my pocket. I did so and she seemed better. Anyway, back to my uncle. My aunt, (not the one beside me!!! My uncle's wife.) kept crying and sobbing loudly, so much so that my cousins, (her children who are already adults...) had to hug her and reveal their fluster-red faces. They were crying too. And in fact, there were a lot of people crying as well. Very sad, there was so much crying in the room and the distinctive sobs flooded the room with utter uneasiness. So, when we were allowed to take on last look at my uncle, I went in front and gasped.

I have at least understand a part of my aunt's sorrow. My uncle looked nothing like how he looked in the orbituary. From a skin as fair as Ryan Seacrest's, his skin was now as dark as an Indian's. He used to have a paunch but now he was as skinny as me. There were a lot of wrinkles and his skin looked so delicate. His facial features seemed like wax as I looked in utter shock. The result of coloncancer was resting in front of me. Never did I expect any corpse at all to look like that.

Then, we made our way to the place where he was cremated. I took a front space together with my other cousins. My aunt was now sobbing so much that it seemed she was not going to be able to bear to see through the ceromony. Due to the intense heat, the coffin had to be machine-operated into the burning room. THEN!!! At the very moment the flicker of the fires arose, another lady had broken down. She began stamping her feet repeatedly on the floor and she burst into tears and screams. She shouted non-stop in some dialect and everyone merely watched pitifully as some other people held her tight. My cousins had put their hands over their mouths. Crying? I thought so at first until I took a closer look and realised they were laughing!!!

We got out and everyone had been infected with either silence or monotone voices. Thank God one of his close relatives was deliberately put at the back. If she saw the burning up close, I think things would have turned out worse. I later found out that the woman had broken down because she was standing at the point in which she actually saw the process of the cremation. "Your sweet saved my life..." my aunt joked when she came up to me later. There were still a lot of people crying rather loudly. As I took my ride home in the car, my relatives joked and all. I got a haircut and soon forgot about the cremation. But the moment I came to the computer, I knew I had to post this entry to make all of you out there realise how precious your ancestors are right now and when it's time for you to accept the fact that they are gone, at least you will have the fact that you have cherished them to embrace.

Solemn Perfectionist rocked the house on 9:05 PM