On a blogging hiatus
I had a blogging schedule all planned out so that Lioness in Japan will continue as I’m lying on white sandy beaches in Sri Lanka.
But life has a way of throwing unexpected curveballs in your direction sometimes.
My grandmother passed away last Saturday morning at 4am. My elder sister alerted me through Google Chat that our mama (grandmother in Cantonese) died after two weeks of ill health. She requested that I return as soon as possible and I said, “Of course I want to be there for the funeral.” I flapped around looking for air tickets online but managed to wake the kangaroo up at 5am while he was in Frankfurt so he could change my Singapore flight (I was planning to fly this week because of my Sri Lanka trip).
And so it was confirmed I would fly out of Nagoya, which is 90 minutes away from Tokyo by shinkansen (bullet train) for an 11am flight. I rushed around all day tying up loose ends for work, packing and buying things that friends asked me to. I was actually glad to get out of the house because I would have cried if I stayed at home.
After 12 hours of travelling, I touched down into the embrace of my family where we comforted each other through old stories, traditions, and food. My grandmother lived with my parents since my sisters and I were born as he was her only surviving son. He decided on a Taoist Buddhist funeral because it was what she would’ve wanted although she was not religious.
My father got acqauinted with Taoist funeral rites and educated our whole family on what to do. I won’t go into the details but there was a lot of bowing, joss stick burning, offerings, and a couple of monks who chanted ancient scripts and songs. One thing that we did that was a little different was that we wore red after the cremation and had dim sum to celebrate my granny’s long life.
I can’t say that she died peacefully in her sleep because she actually suffered quite a lot physically towards the end. Our domestic helper, Yati, was her care-giver and was with her till her last hour and was an absolute champion in taking good care of my granny. We will forever be grateful to her for her kindness and patience.
As a family, we spent a lot of time together as the wake and funeral wore on. Before leaving for Sri Lanka, I decided not to spend all my time on the computer and I will just enjoy their company. I was afraid the blogging world would forget me if I didn’t post articles for a month, but I have more important matters to take care of in the real world, like catching up with friends and just being around my folks.
So, please forgive my absence and hope you will still be here when I check in again in Jan 2010. Ja, ne. Mata rainen.
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