Tidbits
Sleepover at Ikea - Maybe this is the only way to get to the $1 early enough…
A ramen bath - Japanese spa with special baths resembling instant noodles. I wanna play!
Old age homes for dogs - 1) Old dogs don’t like to be abandoned at strange places. 2) Playing with young puppies will probably cause the older dogs to die faster due to exhaustion.
A remote-controlled pigeon - Oh the poor thing…
An article on a brilliant method of teaching grade schoolers about bats and rabies. I smell a lawsuit.
Will trade beer for Crumpler bags. Tempted by the beanbag and messenger bags…
Photos
What I did on 777
July 08, 2007, 4:57 am
July 7, 2007. Suppose to be a lucky day. Definitely THE day for weddings, as every bride wanted a 777 wedding. And what did I do? I attended a 777 funeral.
It was for a UW Compeng from my year, and was my office buddy at Hotmail during my last coop term. He was working full-time in Cali after graduation. Basically he was camping with friends a few weekends ago, and somehow drowned in the lake. I heard the whole story on Facebook. It took a week to find his body. Initially, I remember seeing his status saying that he was missing, and I thought to myself that hopefully he will find himself. Then a week later, it said his body was found. So I finally checked out his profile and read what happened. What a shock that was. Total disbelief. Must be some sort of joke. Went on MSN, he was online! But no, sadly, a former Hotmail coworker confirmed the facts, and said that his work computer was still on.
So it was the first funeral that I’ve been to for a peer, and I hope it will be the last. The strange thing about coop is that sometimes, you get to know a person better in four months, than you would after five years of classes together. Four months out of 27 years seems a very short time to know someone, and I suppose I would categorize him as an acquaintance rather than a friend. We weren’t exactly close, but we chatted enough for me to know him, his interests, his goals. Afterwards, we mostly exchanged online pleasantries when we returned to school, and that was that. Just another face that passed beyond my circle of existence and faded away. I think if I were to have gone back to Cali to visit, I would have made some attempt to get-together (hehe, get him to cook for us again), but I would not have gone out of my way to arrange it.
I’m not sure why I felt compelled to attend his funeral, it felt like a stranger invading on the most private of occasions. But he was very religious (and he was one of the truest believer I know), and so it felt right and proper to go, to pay one last respect and wish him well.
One of the speaker asked that if today was our own funeral, what would be the legacy that we would leave behind. For Vince, it was an easy question to answer. He touched a lot of people through his work with the church, he was like the social committee, helping people feel like they belong, a missionary. He loved to cook, and everyone will remember that about him. Certainly Mike remembers him as being a good cook, as the only time he met Vince was when he invited us all over to his house for dinner in Cali.
And I realize now that I really don’t know what I would be remembered for, I don’t feel like I’ve done anything worthwhile for others. Perhaps then it’s no surprised when I also realize that leaving behind a legacy is not important for me. That it doesn’t matter if people can’t figure out what to remember me by, or what they will miss. I don’t know what that says about me as a person, and I’m not sure I care.
But that was just the morning. I also went to a Summerlicious dinner at Richlee’s, and checked out the Toronto Night Market, but unfortunately, was too full to check out all the interesting foods.
Tagged: Personal
Comments (0)
© Maggie Tam 2007-2009 www.onechopstick.ca
Powered by Expression Engine 
Blog Feed