death brought us near

its father's day again. father's day celebration is pretty smiliar every year for me. while other wonder what they ought to do that day, what to buy or where to go, i have it same - year after year without the fear of being complaint.

in the morning i will take a trip to the flora market and pick up a few stalks of sweet smelling orchid then detour to the nearby eatery to buy a box of mantou and a bottle of sweet rice wine. these are my father's favourite. by this time it will be mid-morning. as the morning sun shines and the breeze glides across my face, i would wind down my car's windows and drive straight to the hill 3 km south of the flora market, facing the meadow. that is my father's resting place, it was a site he and my mother chose together years before their departure.

father dearest had left me orphan 5 years ago after my mother's battle against breast cancer ended with her death on the operation theater. since than i had moved on with my life in a tragically lonely way. although i was already 25 then, life without them was greatly different! every mother or father day, i would spent the morning at their grave. sometime it was just updating them of my life, other times it was me complaining to them of my loneliness. maybe they had heard my plea to shake off this singlehood status or maybe it was a gift from God above. the plot of land that was next to my parents which had been vacant for many years, was finally occupied this year by a freshly made tombstone.

as i placed the orchids, mantou and sweet wine before my father's tombstone, i realised that there were flowers and wine before my father's neighbour's too. i giggled to myself and wonder if the 2 fathers chatting over a glass of wine. curious i walked over to the tombstone next to my father's and started to inspect the writting and picture on it. its a single picture with a handsome face. it read 'here lies a man loving and strong.' i can't help wonder who was it that left the flowers and wine there. just then the sky started to pour. it was the weirdest thing ever! such heavy rain with no grey clouds to hint its coming and the funniest thing was than it stopped as soon as i reached my car.

parked next to my car was a car of the same model and color. seeing it parked next to mine, makes me feel that i was in some sort of honda car-showroom i chuckled a bit. a man came out of the car and smiled at me. he greeted me and asked if i could help him with his car. he had a flat battery and was about to call for help until he saw me coming over. he wonder since our car or of the same model maybe he could get a little 'engery' from my battery. i agreed and whip out some serious stuff from the boot. he looked at me surprisely and asked "wow, a woman carrying all of these power tools and cables in the car? if i didn't know better i would guess you are some sort of serial killer or something!" i laughed and explained that i am working part time as a highway car resusce team.

after that he invited me to have coffee with him somewhere nearby to thanks me. he was new to this area thus i introduced him to the mantou shop. the shopkeeper greeted us warmly as we stepped in. "hanna! so you aren't alone this time round huh? your dad must be so happy to see you attached!" the shopkeep's wife shouted across the shop from the kitchen. i blushed and explained it was not as she thought it to be. she laughed and said "not young already! still so shy!" and disappeared back into the kitchen.

after much chatting, i realised that his name is gongsan, he is the son of the 'new neighbour'. he was the only son and was the only relative his dad had. his mom had ran away with some young chap and he had not heard of her since. he was SINGLE and was never married. i tried to dig into more but it was ended abruptly by the shopkeeper screaming "ticketing police!!! quick go get your cars before he issue a fine!!!" both of us ran out of the shop after placing a few tens on the table. we got into our car respectively and started driving off.

on my way back to the city, i regreted not asking him for his number and felt a fine might even be more profitable than loosing his track. but it was all too late. then i thought if i visit my parents more often maybe i can see him again. but that was as crazy as trying to fish for a needle in the sea! so i let out a deep sigh and continued home.

2 weeks later as i stepped into my office, there standing in the middle of the room was gongsan. he was bowing to everyone and greeting everyone with "thanks for having me and please teach me if i am not good enough". i was shocked but happy. i walked next to him and tap him on the shoulder. "hi! we meet again! what are you doing here?!" gongsan smiled at me and explained that he is on some exchange program and he will be working with our team for the next 3 months before he is posted back to his company (in a town 5 hours away from here).

our relationship grew in leaps and bounds as we spent lots of time together during and after work. by the end of 3 months we were ready to talk about marriage and stuff. i decided to quit my job and moved back to his place. it was a big risk that i was willing to take. after several visits to both our parents, we agreed to get married at the end of the year.

it is weird how our parents had brought us together and how our parents from neighbours had became in-laws. visiting our parents had now become easier for both of us. neither of them will be jealous (if they could ever be) of us spending more time with one than the other cause we always make sure we visit the parents of both side at the same time.