Funeral of Sorts

My goo-cheung enjoyed life. He made sure he did what he enjoyed doing. He passed away while doing what he enjoyed. I never saw him without a smile on his face at any given time.

So, the funeral of sorts was yesterday. My mommy and sam yee’s birthdays were also yesterday. All in all, it was a rather twisted turn of events. We held the funeral at my cousin Ah Keat’s bar/restaurant, right on the dance floor. We placed goo-cheung’s picture (which I scanned and retouched – best retouching work I’ve ever done) and his urn on a solitary table with incense burning to help guide my uncle’s spirit away. Chinese traditions. It was a good turn-out of people, especially since many of them were Christian and most of these people would not agree with our method of ceremony. However, the ones that came, heard what we had to say and understood that it was appropriate. My uncle wanted us to celebrate his life, not mourn his death. We talked about the great things he did in his life. We prayed to him with the incense (more tradition). This all happened during the day.

By 4:00 PM in the evening, things turned around for the best. My cousin, Ah Jow, and I were talking about home theater systems, and he suggested that I use a fiber-optic cable for the audio, which I had no idea about. So, we high-tailed it downtown, where he got some DVDs and some coaxial cables that basically carried the same quality of signal as fiber-optic cable. I snagged a copy of Armada 2 (it was on sale – w00t!) and the fiber-optic cable. We had to take two trips for that, since I had to grab my paycheck and Eugene wanted to tag along on the second trip. We went back to my house where Ah Jow and I hooked up the cable and tested it out on some movies. Sw33t! I’ve never heard such precise audio before – and we OWN the equipment even!! He suggested that I grab a Y-adapter cable for the subwoofer. When we got back, everybody had decided to go to the Hub for supper. We even had Rob, a family friend, come along with us. When we got there, it wasn’t even all that crowded, but they were busy due to their bar patrons next door. So, we ended up waiting 15 minutes JUST for them to set up a table and get us seated. Another 15 minutes to place our order. Ten minutes of sitting and talking. After that, Ah Jow, Eugene, Ning-Ning, and I went to Rogers Video where Ah Jow grabbed some more DVDs. I took a look at the new rentals. When we got back, they brought out the food within 5 minutes. We ate. Sat and talked. To my surprise – they brought out a birthday cake for loh moh and sam yee and all of a sudden, everybody took Wai Yee’s cue and sang the birthday song. I had no idea that Wai Yee snuck out earlier to secretly buy a birthday cake. Cunning!

Like I said, a funeral of sorts. We celebrated goo-cheung’s life, and then went to go enjoy ours. I think that wherever goo-cheung is now, he wore the usual smile on his face that day.