On the third day of CNY 2009 - a trip to Sg Siput

As I have stated on the CNY day 1 writeup, TOC's mum had passed away. As this was the festive season, many of our colleagues had
a) gone back to their hometown and not able to go all the way to Sungei Siput for the funeral wake
b) have an aversion to visiting families who had a recent death
c) had to work by the 3rd day of CNY

Well, I don't have any of those issues and neither did Elaine. So both of us drove up to Sg Siput (about 2 1/2 hours drive from KL) to lend some morale and emotional support to TOC and family in their hour of grief.

Unlike in the past where I dwell on the recently departed, I would like to focus on what I saw of her when she was alive. The first thing that I noticed was a well kept garden, with pots and pots of bougainvillea that were well trimmed. TOC tells me that her mum was a gardener par excellence.And you can see from some of these photos of the plants she had tended to that she put a lot of time and effort into them.

I was glad to see TOC had come to terms with her loss. I know the loss is still difficult to come to grips with in the near term, but at the very least she knows her mum isn't suffering anymore. Her Dad, uncle, sister (TOY), brother and cousin(Jason) were also there. Most of her family had already accepted Christ and the wake projected a peaceful and serene atmosphere. None of that cymbal clanging, loud wailing of the typical Taoist funeral ceremonies.

TOC even had time to take us out to lunch and have a quick tour of Sg Siput. That was interesting despite the brief moment. I had always passed by Sg Siput and dismissed it as another small town on my way to Penang. It is a lot bigger than I had expected.

Elaine and I only stayed on for a few hours and then headed back home.