Out of the loop
Yau Neih had a bit of a shocker yesterday. She called on a student from her class list and was told that she wasn't there. After class, a couple of students came up to Yau Neih and told her that their classmate was dead! She had died "back in May." Ironically, a week or so ago, one of the other teachers had told Yau Neih that a student had died--she just never mentioned that the student was one of Yau Neih's. Typical lack of communication here, though I'm sure it's as much our fault for not being fluent in putonghua. Can't follow the scuttlebut if you don't speak the language.Of course, the girl's death left us feeling rather glum. I don't think that I had ever talked with her, nor had she been close to Yau Neih. In a class of 60 or so, there's only a few that one gets to know well. But it still is a shock to see a young person go like that. It made me think back to my high school days when a graduate who was a few years ahead of me was killed by a truck. It was the first time I experienced the death of a peer. My friends and I went to the funeral and all that, and we had our own version of a wake when we sat around and were sad together. But looking back, I can see that I had no clue how much life Kathy had really missed by dying when she did. (I know, I know, she went to Heaven and we survivors are the ones who need to be mourned. I'm talking under the sun here.) As a forty something geezer, hearing about a mere child of nineteen passing away is a greater tragedy.
I hate death...
posted by John @ 5:27 AM
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