I went to her funeral

I called my friend Susan and asked if she would attend Ching's funeral or not. She said she is geting ready to go and asked if I want to ride with her. It was such a good offer I could not resist.
We left at 1:20 Monday afternoon and drove to the funeral home where they are having the memorial at 2 PM. We arrived just time to say hello to her husband and her daughter. Then we went inside the chapel and waited. I went up to view the casket and there lied Ching. Her face looked so grim and hr hands are pale and tiny. They dressed in her Chinese vest which I remeber she wore it during one Chinese New Year. As I said my last goodbye to her, I tried to hold my tears because I knew if I start crying I would not stop. Guests slowly come in to fill the chapel. Her relative from Taiwan came. One woman really cried.
To open the memorial, her daughter Michelle got up and said the eulogy , telling us how she was. And then the funeral director went on to conduct the ceremony.

a death of a friend

I was watching the late night news with my husband. There was the news that they found a death Asian woman, 55 year old on Sun Shine Lane. I told my husband: "It sounds like Fern, but that could not be because i jsut saw her screenname on my AIM." But I was so curious, wanting to know who is that Asian woman.

My fear ws confirmed. the next morning, A mutual friend called and told me a bad news that Ching had died. So that woman was my friend Ching. I was told that she fell off the peer behind her house, hit something and had a concuscion then drowned.
I was so sad. I've known Ching for so many years. She was my bank customer. She and her husband own and operate the strip mall on hwy 98. Being Asian, we were attracted to each other although she was rich and I was not so wealthy. She likes to invite me to her parties . She liked to learn how to make salad rolls, Vietnamese styles. I told her to get some Rice papers and she did. she showed them to me the last time I was at her home. I told her that I will come over to show her how. I am thinking about that package of rice paper sitting in her pantry and will neve be used. Ching often told me that I ought to take her to Vietnam with me somedays. Now that someday will never come, she's gone.
I just could not get off my mind that how stupid this death can be. People can be killed during war, in the middle of the gun fire, air plane crash, or illness. But, drowning behind your own home? Noway!!

I checked with her husband , he was not there to answer the phone. He is waiting for his daughter to come back from Australia to have the funeral.
When someone close to you died, you always wish that you have done something different. I wish that I have taken her to my Vietnamse restaurant to have some Pho together.
Will Ching's death teach me any lesson? I doubt it. I will still promiss to some friends and never show up.