One hair piece, one dress, one bolo tie, one pair of boots....

In another 15 hours or so, it will mark my mum's 4th year death anniversary. (1 something in the afternoon of 17th July)

4
years sound so short, but yet feels like such a long time ago. It's
strange because i don't feel the same loss and sadness as i felt
before. It's also abit interesting to note also that in my house now is
also my stepmom and stepsis. In 4 years' time, so many things have
happened!

But in place of the loss and pain before, it is even
more interesting that i have cumulated fond memories, from my mother,
from my new step family, but most of all, from GOD through the last 5
years of my life. Truly what the enemy meant for evil, God turned it around for good and for the salvation of many more people.

"You
intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is
now being done, the saving of many lives." - Gen 50:20

In memory of wonderful mother, this is a post i found in an old email mailbox.

Written
by Uncle Chen, my mother's line dancing friend. Line Dance had become
my mother's passion ever since she got diagnosed with cancer in
1998.Uncle Chen himself
suffered from cancer but he survived through it. This was written on 27th July 2002, 10 days after my mother's death posted on a line dancing forum.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"One hair piece, one dress, one bolo tie, one pair of boots...."

After
months of struggling through her treatment upon the relapse of her
illness, she finally surrendered her soul to be in paradise with the
LORD. It was not an end. It was merely the beginning of a new life. She
had gone forth to prepare the place for us to meet again someday.
Err…to LineDance?

One hair piece, one dress, one bolo tie, one pair of boots…..that’s all she had with her as she lay in the “box”.

The
wake was well attended. Her husband, Mr Toh, came up to me and
whispered “Mary, had asked for you guys to do a dance for her. She had
said something about a last ‘new’ dance she had learnt”

Yes, i
recalled showing her “I will survive” at the Singapore General Hospital
a few weeks back. Even as she teetered, she had managed the 32 count
sequence!

i couldn’t get myself to dance in front of her coffin,
but the Society’s “Young Guns” did! They even ingeniously changed the
first count “shooting” hand-movement to that of a “salute”.

Our
family first spotted Mary when we visited Riverside nearly 3 years ago.
It was easy. She had a very unique hair piece (one of its kind). We
came to know of her condition through the grapevine. i felt morally
responsible to befriend her as a “support group”, after all i had also
been through a similar scare and survived!

In the very short
time, we were to become good friends as i made every effort to comfort
her, give her strength and motivate her to look at the many nice things
in life.

Through all my efforts, I could see it in her eyes.
They tell me that secretly she knows very well that her end is very
near. One evening, at the hospice, she blurted it all out, “Uncle chen,
kong pian oway” (“telling lies” in hokkien. Yes indeed, i had been
telling her of many false hopes)

Those were the last words she had for me, before the cancer got the better of her and she lost consciousness.
!

The “first” LineDancer i know who had passed away. Also the “first” to have LineDancing at her wake.

“Ayoh! Marylou, this had been my idea, i wanted the honor but you had beaten me to it!”

One hair piece, one dress, one bolo tie, one pair of boots…..

(With fond memories of Mary Lim Soh Kim; 27 Mar 52 – 17 Jul 02)