Life as we know it

Dear Zach,

This year CNY is never the same with the absence of my mum. Every new year, she would be in the mood of spring-cleaning every corner of the entire house, decorating the wall with a bit of red decors with the bare minimum efforts to live up the festive mood. Her loud absence in the house has made a very drastic mood shift in us. My dad and I did not do much for the festive season - only a few cleanings and that was it.

The week before the CNY holiday, I have been on the road working delivery in the afternoon. The festive season traffic was so bad I literally spent almost more than 4 hours everyday on the run. But I can't complain for the high fare during this festive season. My life has been very mundane - apart from going to the gym in the morning and working delivery in the afternoon, at night I spend my time resting and go to bed early. I did have sex once this month and I'll write about this later.

Then, here comes the reunion dinner on Monday night - meeting familiar faces and the usuals. The next day, which was yesterday the CNY day 1, was a somber day as it rained non-stop since morning. After I came back home from gym in the morning, I found the gate and the door was left ajar and my dad was no where to be found. A few minutes later, my dad walked back from a few houses down and told me that one of our closest neighbor fainted at home. I quickly went to my neighbor's house and found the paramedic has pronounced his death to his wife. He was a 79 year-old good man who loved his dog. We were by the wife's side until his children arrived. I also helped out the paramedics to carry the deceased from the chair to his bed. My late mum and dad were very close to them as neighbors. They helped us out a lot when my mum was bed-ridden for her final months. So, I reciprocated as much as I could til their children were here.

As we were driving to downtown for another reunion lunch, my dad seemed to be in deep thought in the car. I can tell he was deeply affected by the passing of the neighbor, but he wasn't surprised by his sudden death because he was told a week before that the neighbor had signs of random pains ensued.

My dad let out a sigh and said: "Life."