Emotional Times.

(Warning, this is an emotional post.)

It's not everyday your friend survives cancer. Richard Yap, I salute you. A man of courage and strength, you will inspire us all by your amazing bravery and courage in the face of cancer. You have endured more pain, suffering and trauma than most of us will ever undergo in an entire lifetime in the last few years. Yet your sense of humour remains, your wit and mental faculties are better than ever and you came out of this experience a better man.

Next week i have semester exams but despite that I came back to KL this weekend simply because i heard Richard is coming back from major surgery in London. Many people see this as being very thoughtful etc. but for me the reason for me to come back is simple. It's not everyday your mate survives cancer. I am actually dissapointed that more people who knew him and still stay in Taman Desa did not come to visit him.

These few days spent with him gave me new perspective on life and death. It gave me a renewed vigour to live and do something with my life. Seeing someone survive that sort of experience should give everyone what years of therapy cannot. It should give people a reason to live. The most touching thing about visiting him though was not his reaction, it was his mothers reaction. That lady is a gem of a person and she was so happy to see everybody who came to visit him. But more than that, the look on her face everytime she looked at her son's face was just pure joy. It was as if she knew that everytime she looks at him it's a bonus. Whether his life was changed forever by the sickness or not, I will never know for sure. But what i do know for sure is that both his parents' lives have been changed forever by his sickness.

I've never been too much of a religious person but in this case, all the doctors over the past 3 years may have contributed but there is one who can claim the greatest amount of credit for curing Richard and that's god. So whatever religion you may subscribe to or practice, thank god for saving a young man who has a full life left to live.