Cynthia Foo

Everybody, please meet Peter and Wuan

One of the highlights from my Kuala Lumpur trip was meeting up with people whom I admire and adore. 

I started reading Peter’s weblog since years ago. He is very inspiring - all the work he has done for his local community and especially for the diasbled ones.
(If I were in his position, I would have probably given up long time ago.) 
Everytime I see people like Peter who fight hard in their lives, I keep telling myself that I have to work very hard - to help people, to bring the sunshine into thier life.  
I keep reminding myself to smile all the time too! I believe smiling can cheer people up. That’s good enough, in some way especially in a non-productive day ^^

It was a great honour that I was invited to attend Victor Chin, Wuan and Peter’s Exits Photo Exhibition

and we talked about death.

Peter has dedicated a major part of his blog to his late mother (read here) - sometimes it is not hard to understand what is the main force behind a person that keep him fighting in his life: LOVE

Beside Peter’s late mother , Wuan. She is a wonderful woman. Absolutely absolutely.

We all shared a fair bit of our experience in death.

According my family, my paternal grandpa past away when I was 8-months old. He was 60 years old. My family had a traditional Hakka funeral, which they had the Taoism monks to call my late grandpa’s spirit home. His spirit went around for awhile, he didn’t want to leave only my family realised he wanted to see his only grandchild - me!
After they brought the baby me out, he left. I never saw my late paternal grandpa before. I only got to see his photo from my auntie and in my old primary school. Dad told me he was a handsome man, very knowledgeable and well educated. [Think : my own father]

My maternal grandpa (Gong Gong) past away when I was 10 years old. Renal failure. He bought himself a kidney dialysis at home. Things didn’t go well. He decided to travel to India to get kidney transplant. It went alright for awhile, but not for long.
He passed away at the age of 56.
My late maternal grandpa loved and spoilt me to bits! Although we were raised in a traditional Hakka and TeowChew family, yet everyone is treated equal. I was the only grandchild in the family, I had all the attention [I still do *wink*]
Gong Gong worked very hard in his life - he did a lot of charity work back in his days. He helped the people, the schools. He raised funds. He was a good man. Everyone respected him. His time may have gone, but his name will always in Bagan Serai..and my heart. I miss my Gong Gong.
 

A few years ago, I was involved in a MV accident when I first moved to a new Town. It was a rainy day. I was driving out and was going through a junction.. *BANG!* The neighbourhood thought I was going to die.  The crash was pretty bad. I didn’t know what was going on. I heard “someone” calling my name. Strangely enough, apart from the landlady.. no one knew my name.
I believe “someone” was doing me good.. decided to send me back to this world. *amitabha*

The photo exhibition was an eye opening session for me. It made me realise that I actually encouter death everyday - I have people come to me everyday, telling me they have or their friend(s) have breast cancer, bowel cancer etc etc. Towards a point, I found myself not wanting to get involved, emotionally.

I did ask Peter, and plenty of people out there: is this a good thing? or a bad thing?

Reading Peter’s blog is slightly different than meeting him in person. He sounds ‘mad’ sometimes in the blog. Ya know, the rights-based advocate thingo in him. In real life, he is all calm and very well spoken. *wise man per say*

I’ve spoken to a friend of mine who shares the same passion as Peter does - I am hoping to get both of them to meet some day down the road. I believe the outcome will be positively promising *fingers crossed*

Dear Wuan and Peter, Thanks for having me and Mel around. It is such a great honour to meet my hero. Till then, I will see you next time!

Read here for another blog entry from Peter’s blog