Just thoughts

Ages ago, a friend asked me whether I've seen any deaths/bodies since I was working in a medical environment.

I replied no since I've never seen it. Heard, yes, but seen? No.

Last week, word got round that another one had passed away in the ward. I've heard of his name but have never seen him since I was only dealing with outpatients instead of those that were admitted.

That morning, as I was walking to the main building, I saw the big white van, bearing words that read Ah Ming's Funeral Service or the like. Ah, they're transporting the body, I thought. I've never seen how they did it, mind you so I thought it was pretty interesting.

I shared the same lift with the undertaker who got off at the second floor whilst I got off at the third.

After making some copies on the copier, I pressed the 'down' button and waited for the lift to 'ping', signaling its arrival. When it did, the doors opened, revealing a crowd of people crowding around a body with white sheets draped over it. I could make out the feet, nose and some other features poking from the sheets.

Knowing that they had stopped on the wrong floor, they closed the lift again and then headed downstairs.

Before this, I've always wondered how I would feel if I had one day seen the transportation of a dead body. Surprisingly, I felt nothing, at first sight.

Perhaps it was because I did not know the person who had passed on. Either way, it felt normal.

However when the lift arrived again, this time empty, I stepped into it feeling a teensy bit weird. I don't know. Maybe it's the fact that I've never really seen and had experienced much of such incidents.

Today, I found out from a colleague that a frequent outpatient of ours had passed away last Saturday. He was admitted last week due to breathing difficulties. Very fast.

Although I did not know him personally, I felt sort of sad. Seeing the transition of him being able to walk till the times he was wheel-chair bound was quite painful to watch.

Also, knowing the fact that we would never be seeing him ever again was sort of saddening. His family members paid us a visit in the afternoon and his wife shook all our hands, thanking us for all that we've done for him when he was alive.

I nearly had tears in my eyes, really.

Sigh.

Of course, the exact opposite of death happens more often than not. And those situations, of course, would give us a good feeling that we've all played our parts and done well.

And of course, there would always be the difficult-to-handle bunch of people who are also known as headache bringers. =.=

Yes. Life. The many changes, forms and situations it brings.

Till then.