What Happened at the ...

C and I met up again. It was a last minute kinda thing. This time for a wake service of the grandmother of a production member. And this time with R, the producer of the production. The wake service was held in Klang. C thought that by asking a Klang girl (me) along, they would not be lost trying to get to that place.

He thought wrong.

Apparently, I must have forgotten to inform him that I was real bad with directions during our first 'date'. After all, there is only so much you can tell a person about yourself in one night. Must give equal air-time to that person to talk about themselves and narrate the whole story of two Korean dramas that are close to their heart mar. Yeah, R and I were delightfully shocked to find out that macho C loves watching soppy Korean dramas.

So there we were in Klang, driving towards the grandma's house with me giving the wrong directions and C quickly giving the correct ones. This was embarrassing given the fact that I was the one who was born and bred in Klang whereas he hailed from Seremban. We ended up getting lost anyway because it was a difficult place to find. But God led us to stop at the right places and asked the right people (including some blur ones) for directions and we managed to get to that place on time.

We overheard one aunty exclaiming to another that it took her 1.5 hours roaming round and round before she found the place. Wowzers.

Upon entering the house compound and paying our last respects, we felt a sense of peace and quiet joy, which was strange for an occasion such as this. We soon found out why. Aunty Chong lived to a ripe old age of 85, was faithful and trusting in God to the very end and even though she died of cancer, she was pain-free most of the time. Her sons who gave the eulogy were very sad to lose their mom but it was not the kind of grieving that comes from not knowing if they will ever see her again.

When I found out that the grandma was a member of my sister's church, I scanned the crowd looking for my eldest sis. She wasn't there. She came much later and when I was engrossed with listening to the emcee, she tapped my shoulder and silently mouthing, "What are you doing here?"

I was very happy to see her and broke out into a huge smile and was about to mouth my answer back when she frowned at me. "Cannot smile so big when the emcee is talking lar," her mouth formed the words and her eyes shot disapproving daggers at me.

So I nodded, clamped my mouth shut and turned my head back to its original position. Throughout the service, she looked suitably serious and mournful, whereas I was sitting there, smiling away thinking of happy thoughts. Time and again, I would catch myself grinning at some funny thoughts and then mentally give myself a shake, "Wei, you are at a funeral. Try to respect the bereaved family lar."

But it's hard to look and feel mournful when everyone around you (except for your sister) are looking relaxed and joyful and even laughing at the bloopers that the pastors were unintentionally making. C, R and I were grinning at each other when those bloopers happened. I tried catching my sister's eye but she steadfastly fixed her serious eyes on the speaker. Aiya, no fun lar she.

We did manage to catch up after the service was over albeit in a very quiet manner, so that was cool.

C commented that my sis and I looked very different from each other and R agreed that our personalities were also very different. Same parents, same food, but we turned out to be very different as most siblings do. Hah, in case you are wondering what kinda ogre my sister is, let me hasten to assure you that she is a gentle, generous and caring soul and we love each other to pieces.

So anyway, that's what happened at the wake service last night.

So how come it's called a wake, not a sleep?
~ C