that one crazy week spent in Vancouver General Hospital and Brock Street was really, really hard. Seeing someone you love so much slowly succumb to cancer over a period of 18 months, walking so closely with her the last three days before she stopped breathing and being a support for the one left behind has really changed me.
Tonight was New Years Eve. Seeing my uncle sitting on New Years Eve in Hong Kong with us in church was the biggest gift before 2010 ended. I was always close with my aunt and uncle - they were adventurous, fun-loving and world travelers. They were scuba divers and loved enjoying life. We definitely speak the same language there. I have even often thought that if I hadn't known Christ then I would live a life exactly like my hedonistic aunt and uncle. They had a beautiful house near downtown Vancouver which I've always called my second home. Both of them had just retired and was planning on doing volunteer work all across the globe to make their time useful.
Then, my aunt got diagnosed with acute leukemia, and after undergoing the first chemotherapy which failed to heal her, the doctors declared her death sentence very fast - there was nothing they could do. Over the 18 months prior to November 17th, my uncle nursed and walked with my aunt in the valley of the shadow of death. He witnessed her body deteriorate slowly at first, and then rapidly the nearer the end came. He also witnessed her fight, then breaking down psychologically when everyone knew she wouldn't make it, till when at the end she was as peaceful as a newborn baby waiting to be carried away into Heaven's arms. It must've been so hard for my uncle as the one left behind.
