Monday, May 19, 2008

Growing old healthily

We have our moments in life. Love, hate, happiness, sadness, anticipation, frustration, elation, anger, feel good, or depression, we experience them all in some stages.

While life has been good to me, although stressful here and there, there is nothing more important than being healthy and feeling good about it. Yes, we do get our colds and hiccups, but who doesn't?

I am feeling a little 'down' because I haven't seen my Unit 3 neighbour for a couple of weeks now. It has only been her husband Jim coming and going, but no sign of her. The last we saw Aileen, they are both an elderly couple, she was in a wheelchair because she had a hairline fracture in her femur. The cause of it was her progressive and advanced stage of lung cancer, which they only found out late last year. Jim is no better as he himself is a lung cancer survivor, and on a relapse now. Both of them are proper British couple, no-nonsense and friendly.

I told Wilkin about Aileen's 'disappearance' and we both thought we should get her a nice bouquet of flowers. Last night I was looking at some cards at work, and found only 'Get Well Soon' and 'Sympathy'. While it is only natural to get a 'Get Well Soon' card, for her fractured femur, but how can I be insensitive towards her fragile state of health right now? For all we know, (as we haven't spoken to Jim so far) Aileen's condition may be deteriorating in the hospital.

I have seen them all before. The sight of my MIL reduced to skins and bones from stomach cancer, her last moments, will be imprinted in my mind forever. The memory of Wilkin's grandmother's will to live was snatched away after being knocked to the ground by a 3-year-old unknown child running pass her in the market, resulting in a broken femur. The looks in her eyes days before she passed on, when she could neither hear nor speak, is something you will not want to witness for even a second. Good, nice old people should not suffer like that!


Cancer is such a slow and cruel killer. I can think of no other words now Aileen, except that our thoughts and prayers are with you. And for the rest of us, it will be nice to be able to grow old together healthily.

3 comments:

Shannon's Mummy said...

This is a sad post.. Anyway, hopefully she is recovering well...

Leena said...

Oh ya, old people are really too fragile to handle even the slightest fall. So pity to see them suffer. May God bless Aileen.

Anonymous said...

Sigh...

Better do die suddenly when eating a hearty meal. At least ur last moments were enjoyable.

wei.... u ok?