Yup, the hospital's done it this time. It was also my fault for neglecting to collect it back from them. In fact, I had forgotten that it was with them as I was supposed to see the doctor in a couple month's time from the last visit. That stretched to a year and more.
So now, it's nowhere to be found ... yet, and it's especially depressing as my case is unique. Very soon I will have to storm over there and look for it myself. Which brings the question to mind. How long does a hospital keep a patient's details? I will need to find out more. Can I sue?!!
Already half the year gone. And, todate it's chalked the highest loss so far.
Was having a conversation with my regular taxi driver on the way to the airport to Bali last week. I had first met him some eight maybe nine years ago by chance when he gave me a lift home from the airport. He seemed decent enough, an educated English-speaking elderly man opting for early retirement. Tired of the rat race, he thought it would be fun to drive a cab as he would still be making a living, and also meeting people from all walks of life. Since then, he's ferried me every time my other half and I needed a trip to the airport.
Which meant that each year at most I would only see him three to five times. Some years just once. But I found out that his wife was working for an MNC and had since retired, he had three children, one had a scholarship from the paper I worked for. And since then, one had gotten married, another had broken up with a fiance and was now with someone else. And he regaled me with stories of all his different clients whom he had to fetch regularly. Many of them were expats or important company executives. Certainly, if there was a a hierarchy for taxi drivers, he was definitely upper management. He had also travelled much, and oft times would tell me what to look out for while sightseeing or seeking new foods in a new country.
Last year he had told me that his wife had just been diagnosed with stomach cancer. How they were fortunate enough to have it detected as there were no real signs. She had gone through chemo and was recovering well. Just last month, just before New York he had said how she seemed poorly and had to go back to the hospital as the cancer apparently had recurred. Then when he drove me last, he seemed more tired than usual. When I asked, he said he had just done with his wife's funeral arrangements over the weekend.
How my heart went out to him! Now barely 60, just when he thought he could enjoy his twilight years with his partner, she passed away. He seemed resigned to his new state of singleness. There's never a right time to say goodbye to a loved one.
In the same vein, during a recent high school reunion, I found out my ex-school boy had given in to stomach cancer, and two other classmates too had passed on while a few others were having ongoing battles with their personal lumps.
It's funny how we talked about all our different paths, who's doing what job, who's CEO and who's tai-tai, who still looks good. But in the end, for those who have walked down the same road, C unites us all.
Brings to mind (morbidly) what lamlet no. 3 said the other day. He was talking about his school having a haunted house during the school fair. "And you know, there was this grave with this hand reaching out! So normal!" What?!!
So there, if kids at 9 are immune to death, you would think adults should be too. Though his is more of a case of too much Plants vs Zombies...
Oh death where is thy sting ... thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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