Monday 6 May 2013

Another Departing Soul


I came back to the hospital early in the morning.

My tests came back. The result showed that there was high level of autoimmune activity. The Lupus medical team came to see me. They asked questions as to my sensitivity to the sun and checked if I had the butterfly imprint on my cheeks. My blood test for Lupus was negative.

 “I got sun burnt just like any Chinese lady,” I told them.

“It can take 3-5 years to diagnose lupus, meanwhile we have to classified you as having auto-immuned disease.”

The Chinese elderly lady who had been on oxygen passed away. She didn’t eat nor open her eyes for ove a week.  Her daughter cried. I felt tears on my cheeks just listening to her sobbing and the ‘Why are you leaving us?”  Strong love warms my heart.



Calming the soul when the ashes
from cremation are spread
  to nature.

She was wrapped with a white cloth. A few hours later, Buddhist monks came to chant for the departing soul. The family cried softly. Then she was wheeled away to the mortuary.

A living life was thus gone.  May her soul be blessed for the next life.

Seeing deaths in the ward has made me more circumspect.  It is really true that one can’t bring anything to the other side after one takes the last breath.  And when a patient is faced with the impending arrival  of death, what would she do?

Will seeing angels help one to feel better at such moments? 




By Ching Ching


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