Sudden Death
While talking with Cliff on the topic of sudden death recently, he raised a valid question. Even when you die, the world still moves on. Would you just want to enjoy your life, or would you want to spend your life improving the world or leaving a legacy to others?
For me, I’ll choose the later, and I’ve been thinking and working on ways to do that one step at a time.
Yet, sometimes when death comes calling at you all too sudden, there is nothing much that can be done.
I refer to the death at Jurong Camp this morning.
A FULL-TIME National Serviceman (NSF) was hit and killed by a truck driven by another serviceman in Jurong camp 1 early on Friday morning.
Lance Corporal (LCP) Wee Yong Choon Eugin, a Signal Operator, was about to unload stores from the back of the truck at 7am on Friday morning when it reversed into him.
A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) medic attended to LCP Wee immediately. At 7.05am, an ambulance was activated to evacuate LCP Wee to the National University Hospital (NUH).
LCP Wee was sent to the hospital at 7.15am and arrived at NUH at about 7.45am. However, he was pronounced dead at 7.59am.
In a statement, the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) and the SAF extended their deepest condolences to the family of the late LCP Wee. Mindef added that they were assisting the family in their time of grief and were investigating the incident.
Assuming the worst and that there is no such thing as “heaven”, “hell” and reincarnation, we only live one life on this earth. When its over, its over. Something like this can happen to anyone. How should we live our life?
Yet I see people who only live in the moment. To me, these people only live for themselves, wasting the world’s food, air and water supply.
But in this case, apparently Eugin was not one of these people. He has ambitions. According to the interview broadcast on TV earlier, he was a filial son who goes out of the way to help elderly in need.
We live in the age where people upload bits and pieces of themselves onto the internet. Shocked and saddened by news, I ventured onto his facebook profile. What I saw saddened me even more.
He is an NSF with lots of nights out.
He had barely served a year in army, and freedom is still more than a year off.
He wants to try colored contact lens during Chinese New Year.
Like me, he found stuff from his Primary School days when spring cleaning.
He is an awesome debater.
He just took SAT test and was waiting for the results.
He is dead.
But in his death, he had left a final legacy to all future males in Singapore. Knowing SAF, they would do a full investigation into the matter and perhaps implement proper safety procedures in place to prevent such a stupid incident from happening to others.
Lets live our life not just for ourselves, for we never know when death might strike us. Its people who give up valuable time and parts of their life that bring us to where we are as a society today. Lets live our life in a way as to better that of those who will come after us.
Eugin, although I do not know you in person, rest in peace.