Later became too late

A very close friend just passed away ... she was taken away so suddenly, so unexpectedly and so unjustly. Both my wife and I are very sad to lose a good friend ... it is difficult to accept that a good person can be taken away just like that but life can be so cruel. There were so many things for her to look forward to ... a good life to live, a good husband and a great family to spend time with. But all is not going to happen now ... taken away by an unsuspecting tumor.

Thinking about it ... it underscores what I always say ... spend time with your kids, spend time with your spouse, spend time with your old folks, spend time with your friends and spend time for yourself. Don’t wait ... do it now, at this moment!

But then again we always hear people say ...” aiya no time lah, have to work” ... “still can work mah, why retire?” ... “wait, still got plenty of time” ... “don’t worry, age is not a factor” and the easiest said of all ... “later lah”.

We must have heard so many times that people were taken away so early, so suddenly, so fast, so unfair ... they were supposed to live a good life, there were so much for them to look forward to and there were so much they wanted to do.

The thing is ... we don’t want to believe that it can happen to us or someone close to us. But the reality is ... it can, without warning. Before we could even think of settling down to live the way we worked so hard for ... life can throw a hard curve at us and send everything down the drain. I hear it again and again, so many times, the things that were regretfully not realized ... it is always the things that we said that we will do later ... the retirement that was set back, the family holiday that was postponed, the get together dinner that was supposed have, the gathering that was going to happen, the hometown trip to visit the old folks that was delayed ... and so on and so forth.

People procrastinate ... somehow they will find reasons to do so. I can still do it later or I will have plenty of time to do it later, they told themselves. Then suddenly it is not going to happen anymore and later will not be the same ... later became too late.