Broken Hearted Bear

We went to visit our friends the other day and our hostess looked a bit shaken. We learned that one of her co-workers had passed away at the age of 36, leaving behind 4 young kids. Then on Friday in Bangkok my good friend’s husband died unexpectedly of heart attack. They have just one kid. The girl is half way through her study in the UK and flying home for her father’s funeral. This friend of mine was with me all day at my father’s cremation last month. I rang her and we talked for a long while.

It is sad naturally when we learn of mortality of people we know – and in many cases people we don’t know personally in some circumstances as in the case above or some catastrophic disasters like the Tsunami that hit Thailand, Indonesia and surrounding countries 10 years ago or the one in Japan in 2011. These include earthquakes and plane crashes. One minute they were there and in the next hours they were gone.

This picture above, somehow, makes my eyes teary. I don’t know the child or the parents. The teddy bear looks fairly new, the Christmas bauble must have been hung just last Christmas. I don’t even know if it’s a baby, a toddler or a stillborn but in any case it was a young life taken too early, too soon and too sad.
 
As an old saying in Buddhism " life is uncertain but death is certain", we do not know what is around the corner – be kind to your loved ones, cherish them, spend time with them and be grateful for everyday that they are still with us.