Gary Love Share (Gary 愛分享)

Two famous people left their loved ones and fans, and went to Heaven yesterday. One young and beautiful Taiwanese actress, 許瑋倫, passed away at the age of 28 due to a serious injury arising from a car accident on her way to Kaohsiung. 楊傳廣, the most famous Taiwanese athlete and Taiwan's first Olympic medalist (silver in the men's decathlon at the 1960 Rome Olympics) also died, at the age of 74, of a brain hemorrhage. The causes of the death are different. However, there is one thing that holds true-their friends, fans, family members must be very davastated. Those two great people will still linger in their's minds for a long time. Perhaps, they will be remembered for good. Let's hope they can rest in peace in Heaven.

Yesterday, I watched "Sex and the city" again. In that episode, Miranda's mother passed away. She called Carrie and pretended she was very strong. But as her best friend, Carried knew deep down in Miranda's mind, she was vulnerable and weak, needing someone to be there for her and pull her together. She invited Samantha and Charlotte to attend the funeral and saw if Miranda needed any help. When Miranda saw them showing up, she was touched. She was afraid that she was the only one who didn't have any company among her relatives when they all walked the casket out of the church and paid the respect. Carrie heard that and when the moment came, she joined the line and held Miranda's hand without any hesitation. I believe at that moment, that did warm Miranda's heart and cast away some of her sorrow over the death of her mother.

Compared to the scene in "Sex and the City" and how Carrie shows her support, people in Taiwan tend not to talk about death because of different cultures. Even if our good friends suffer from the loss of their loved ones, most of Taiwanese don't know what to do to ease their pain and show their support except for white envelopes and flower wreaths. Not even a phone call most of the time. Maybe that's because of the custom. On one hand, people try to leave more room and space for them to take care of the funeral and recover. On the other hand, people are afraid that they might bring some bad luck. One of my foreign friends lost his loved dog a couple of years ago. He told me he had a lot of good Taiwanese friends back then. However, they knew his dog died and knew he was very davastated, but they didn't call him or comfort him. He couldn't understand and he got even more upset because of that. After I told him the possible reason and culture, he realized and could understand why his friends did that to him.

I still remember a couple of years ago, one of my family members fell down and had an operation. I was so concerned about her and felt kind of upset. When she was in the operation room, I was so worried with tears falling down and I appealed to God to give her more strength to pull it out. As soon as my best friend heard of this, he came all the way form Taipei to visit us. When I saw him show up in the room, I was so touched and moved. I didn't say "thank you" to him. But we both knew each other's feelings within. I wil always remember and won't forget how warm I felt at that moment. Therefore, no matter what the custom is in Taiwan when we face death or something "unfortunately" happening to our friends or loved ones, in my opinion, it's always right to reach out our hands and show our care and support, either in written or verbal words, which can definitely give them more strength to stand up once again and move on. What do you think?

Life is volatile and changeable. We all should cherish and value what we own. Mourn for the lost lives and hope all of their family members can be strong, and always remember the beautiful days they share with the perished (angels). Amen!