Babe For Life

Was at IMM for dinner with Angela, after struggling hard in the office just now. As the cab was approaching the building, a person came into my mind. She is Felicia Soo Lai Mee, a very dear friend of mine. She had left us to another world, about a year ago. And I still miss her...

Felicia joined my ex company, Sansho Singapore on 1996. She was in the Finance department, whereas I was in the Sales Team. However, Sansho Singapore is a small office which only have about 15 to 16 staffs, so I was placed seated just opposite her. As she was from KL, she could conversed very well in Cantonese, and I happened to be a Cantonese, we became very close friends. 靓嫂 (Cantonese 'lang so' meaning pretty auntie) was a name I gave her. She always said she was married, so she is already an auntie. I told her, she was a very pretty auntie anyway. She liked the name very much and lived with it till the very last day of her life.

We shared alot of ideas, thought, good times, bad times... She taught me how to grow up in a mature way, taught me how to put myself in my parents' shoes and think whenever I complained about my parents' nagging, taught me how to face problems instead of running away from them. I confined to her to almost everything. She would tell me Buddhist stories then explained the meaning behind it. Sansho had a company trip to Australia, Gold Coast one year, and I shared the room with her. We had a great time talking at night. We even tested our guts in those scary rides in Dream World. I could tell she was very proud of herself after all the rides, because she kept telling the bosses we had great fun challenging all those ride.

Felicia had became very close to my family, coming over for dinner and gathering. She would call my mum once in a while to catch up, or asking her opinion on certain issues. My mama would regard her as her daughter, asking her over for dinner because she knows Felicia missed her mum's cooking in KL. My parents love her company alot.

She was a smoker since I knew her. Whenever I told her not to smoke so much, she will said she was used to it. I even encouraged her that if she quited smoking, she could get ready to get pregnant. However, it took her a long time to quit totally, and she had 2 children, a daughter and a son.

My dear friend was diagnosed with Lung Cancer during the company check up, but she did not follow up on the check up. She said she wanted to use her ways to cure herself, instead of having chemical stuffs in her body. Most of her friends were kept in the loop, and she forbade her friends to leak out the news. We intended to invite her whole family to my brother wedding in October, but she rejected, saying she was not feeling good. When I was told about her illness, she was already at the 4th stage of the cancer. She left the company and stayed at home to rest. She sounded so tired when I called her on the phone, and she told me she had no strength to chit chat with me anymore. I was very sad.

Before I could get prepared for her illness, she lost the battle, leaving behind her husband, and 2 children. She had been a very dear friend to me, and I was really depressed that she is gone forever. And my mama was very sad that, she had lost a friend too. During her wake and funeral, we were told not to cry, because she kept the illness from all her friends, as she would not want us to get worried and sad over it, but how many of us can control our emotion? Basically everyone there had teary eyes.

靓嫂, I hope you are good in another world, free from all the pain and suffering. Miss you very much...