another farewell …
shock…. another shock….. this time, my eldest uncle. Who can believe I can say farewell to two of my uncles within two months. I lost two of my dearest uncles …. my mom lost two of her brothers.
Today is 3/23/2010 is uncle’s funeral. He will be placed with his parents and his brother my 3rd uncle who passed away in Feb.
Am I at that age now where the people I love starts to leave? I often ask myself…. I felt blessed that I was able to go back to Taiwan after 12 years to visit my family last year, if I did not, I would not have been able to see both of my uncle’s for the last time.
Another thing I felt blessed is that mom is here with me …. my 2nd uncle and I did not allow her to go back, no matter how she begged …. we were all very worried about her condition, I don’t know how she will react to the shock of her brothers passing away, we were afraid … maybe she will have another stroke…… I feel better watching over her .. here.
This one memory I cannot forget about uncle … one night he came home (we all live together in two houses next to each other) drunk… and he punched the wood panel of one of the bedrooms… made a big hole, cut himself … that hole, and some blood, is still there after almost 25 years. We never patched the hole…. now come to think of it … it’s a mark, mark of him.
He is the only one in the family who eats beetle nuts (檳榔) when you buy beetle nuts, sometimes you get red dried mangos on the side. Uncle don’t really eat those, and I always sneak to the living room upstairs and take the dried mango from the beetle nut pouch one small piece at a time, thinking that uncle will not notice HA HA… When I saw him last year, he already quit eating beetle nuts for many years. I asked him if he remembered me stealing his pieces of red dried mangos .. he just smiled… I don’t know if he remembered those days.
Uncle was a teacher. He taught sports, taught quiet a few “hard to teach” classes. He also taught Judo, and was an international judo judge. He was promoted many times in his teaching career. The “hard to teach” students became close friends, many of them keep in touch years after they graduate.
My brother said he never saw so many people in our house before. Just endless people paying their respects to my uncle. Some really famous people showed up too … even member of Parliament…. how crazy was that! his students, his colleagues…. my mom keep calling Taiwan and tell them … please keep it simple.
Mom and I spend a lot of time talking about both uncles … what their life was like .. what they did in life … I did not know that my uncle was in the same class with many famous people .. ha ha. He was in same class as 楊烈 and 卓勝利 .. that was surprising!
I think uncle had a short, but eventful life … his biggest hobby during the last few years was collecting antiques. In the past, he also tried his hand on Orchards (蘭花) and 紅龍 … too many to count here are some videos from last year, uncle explaining to me what the antiques are …
We will miss you uncle… farewell ….. be safe on your journey.
