chanced upon an article on the papers just now.

this caregiver is a volunteer for noda (which i cant seem to remember what the abbreviation stood for. confession: only rmbred as it was a name of a shoe shop)
basically, she was doing a recount of the things she do, which is to provide assistance to terminally-ill patients and see them through the last days of their lives, that kind of thing.

and there was this particular line or rather incident which really spurred me.
she recalled of a makcik (malay for aunt) who passed on just minutes before her 80-yr old husband arrived.

he said: how come she didnt wait for me to see her and say my last words?

"i drew the curtains to give him a private moment with his wife. as i turned away, he bent down and whispered to her."

and i cant help but noticed how sad (among other words) it was not to be able to say the words at that moment when you want to say it.

cliche to say that one shouldnt wait for chances to come knocking on their doors again because they might not come again.

can you imagine the amount of anguish that man felt?

years of being with that special One.
and yet not being able to say that last 'i love you' to her despite of the many 'i love you's' he'd made in their past life together.

base line?
say i love you to that one person or that many one persons the instant you feel like saying
because you'll never know when you'll be too late for that last 'i love you'.

sad thing is,
it isnt really in our culture to openly declare our affections to others without feeling....
embarrassed
i certainly dont deny that.
i blush even when i type those three words to my mother online
and Lord knows when was the last time i told daddy i love him
or gramma
and boy, i sure wish they know how much i do.


^noda refers to a voluntary programme named 'no one dies alone' conducted in alexandra hospital, singapore

^^article was the new paper, fiday, 26 august 2005, page 2-3