Love, in the Now

Realizations from life, translated…

The most ordinary, regular, day-to-day accompanying someone can be gone, in an instant. What the heavens wanted us to learn is, to express the love we have for each other.

Jen was my best friend from high school, we’d gone to school and headed home after school together every single day, we’d become so close, that we’d often, shared our drinks, as well as lunches with one another. The seven of us were never too far from each other, and, we’d gone visiting at one another’s homes a lot too. Back then, we’d loved asking one another, “Would we have found jobs ten years from now? Will we be having our kids fifteen years from here?”, the years of our youth were like this, paint that’s never going to get used up or dried out, allowing us, to paint our lives so colorfully.

not my picture…

In the winter breaks of our freshmen year in college, one evening at around eleven, a call brought an unbelievable news. Jen-Jen had gone to U.S. to travel with her older sister, during the day, they’d gone on the thrilling rollercoaster rides, and in the evenings, they’d fallen, fast asleep, in the hotel rooms with the heaters on full-blast; in the middle of the nights, her older sister who was sleeping next to her found that something was off, and found, that Jen-Jen had, died, peacefully, in her sleep. The group of us cried like hell on her funeral, her parents were, burying their child, and all of a sudden, they’d become, so very elderly then; Jen-Jen’s grandmother held back her tears, and handed each one of us, classmates who’d come, to offer our condolences, a small red envelope, to ward off the bad luck. Turns out, that there’s a congenital condition with Jen-Jen’s heart, she’d followed up on her appointments regularly, took her medicines, because of the freezing weather in the States, plus the huge differences of temperature outside and inside the hotels, she’d lost her life. After that, every year on Jen-Jen’s date of death, Jen-Jen’s mom would ask us to get together for a meal, and hear us tell about the goings on of our lives, and, she’d looked, very closely at each and every one of us, said to us, “If Jen is alive, she should be like all of you, in those mini-skirts! And, at this age, Jen should have a boyfriend too!”, seeing Jen-Jen’s mother’s sorrowful face, we’d made a pact, to keep working hard in our separate lives, to live, for the sake of Jen-Jen.

not my photo…

Ling was my best friend and roommate back in grad school, we’d stayed up all night, to work on our papers together, rode together, to see the night scenes too, and as we’d lost in love, we’d held tightly to one another and cried, we were, the besties who were extremely close to one another, living in separate cities, but, working hard, for the same futures. That evening, I’d gotten a call from Ling, “my dad’s dead………”, followed by, the deafening silence. Ling’s father was a down-to-earth farmer, planted the water chestnuts, to raise up the four kids; I’d gone to visit with Ling and her family that very first summer as a first year grad student, Ling’s father smiled a down-to-earth kind of smile, not at all talkative, but, he’d kept, bringing out the drinks, the fruits, as well as the water chestnuts he’d planted himself out to us. “Eat! Eat some more! It’s nothing major, thank you all for coming by to visit us!”

As the warmth of the memories still resonated in my mind, how’d things become, completely turned, upside down all of a sudden? “Even though dad had been overcome with multiple conditions, he’d still lived actively every single day. That day, he’d complained of stomach pains, and, as we’d rushed him to the hospitals, he was immediately taken into the I.C.U., three days later, the doctors asked us if we wanted to take him home for the very last and final time………” Ling sobbed as she’d told me, said that her mom and sister rode in the ambulance, her younger brother and sister drove, and took back the packed things her father had taken to the hospital, and, after she finished the paperwork at the hospital, she’d rushed home, she’d thought of all the kindness her father had shown her, but never said a thank you to him, her tears started, streaming down her cheeks.

At the cross sections in front of her house, a police officer stopped her, “Ms. I need your license and registration, you’d been speeding!”, “Mr. officer, I’m sorry, my father is about to die, I want to, rush home to see him, one last time.” Afterwards, she’d started, howling at the driver’s side. And after the officer checked her license and registration, he’d patted her on the shoulders, “Ma’am, my condolences. Drive slower, and be safe.” Ling’s voice started trembling on the other end of the line, “I can’t believe, that my dad is gone, I kept thinking, that he was going to, walk me down the aisles, and see me in my wedding gown, then, smile shyly and say, ‘Ling, you’re so pretty!’”

As I heard Ling’s voice, her father’s smiling face surfaced up into my mind. Do speak aloud, the love you have for your parents, is this, the most important lesson that the heavens had given to us? The heavens had, connected us to one another, but, didn’t tell us when it’s going to, take the connection back. We should all learn to cherish those we are closest to, give our loving cares and concerns, and just, accompany our loved ones close by. Most importantly, do tell those you love “I love you” in time.

So, this would be considered, a lesson before dying, and because the person writing this had encounters of her friends not being able to tell those they loved “I love you”, so, she’d gotten to known, that she needed to tell those whom she cared about “I love you” now!