Vale Leong Wai Sing

November 10th, 1951 - September 24th, 2008

Dad passed away at 9:50am on Wednesday. He went into the palliative care unit on Monday, as his pain relief medication stopped working over the weekend. When I visited again on Tuesday afternoon he was still able to walk, but lost consciousness around 3pm. Mum, Bethany and I stayed by his side throughout the night, finally returning home around midday.

The hospital stay was originally intended as a short visit, to get him started on a new course of medication. I think that he knew, though. Six years ago, his sister had made the same journey. On Tuesday morning he told my cousin that he had "about 24 hours left", and stayed awake until after Bethany and I arrived. That night was the first he'd spent free of pain since falling sick.

He fought it right until the end, holding out for a week longer than either his sister or his mother. I hope that he has found them again, wherever he has gone.

Goodbye Dad. Be at peace.

Funeral details

Some people eat when they're feeling down. My family cooks.

It's a large family, full of people who understand that eating is an inherrently social activity. And so as relatives come to visit, they invariably come bearing food... the kitchen's now stuffed to the rafters, and I seem to have spent most of the last few days eating. Company has been good, but now I'm back in an empty house in North Melbourne.

I'll be spending a lot of time on the train this week - returning to Somerville on Sunday night, then to Melbourne on Wednesday, and then going back with aeliel on Thursday. I'm still intending to run my tournament at UniCon next Saturday, but I may not be feeling particularly talkative. Thankfully it's a fire-and-forget event - one scenario, no round draws, and the players manage everything during the day. It's a thirty-player event, and the convention will need the numbers.

If anyone would like to come, the funeral will be held next Friday. Here are the details from today's paper:

LEONG. Family and friends are invited to attend a Funeral Service to celebrate the life of Mr Wai Sing Leong which will be held in the Weeroona Chapel at Bunurong Memorial Park, 790 Frankston-Dandenong Rd, South Dandenong, on FRIDAY (Oct. 3) commencing at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Frankston Palliative Care. Envelopes will be available at the Chapel.

Please send me an SMS if you are planning to come along - moral support would be much appreciated

Also...

I helped Pa pick some fruit yesterday, as the citrus trees are almost collapsing under the weight. He turned 91 back in January, and was regretting the fact that he had to give up playing golf just before his stroke. He can't walk very far these days, and misses the exercise that he used to get. While musing about his health, he turned to me and said,

"I used to play golf every week with this chap in his eighties - he's probably still playing now. Two years ago he had a stroke out on the course, as far from the clubhouse as you could get. Must have been a mile across the green.

I carried him all the way back to the clubhouse. He's not a big chap, and I didn't mind the weight. It was picking him up and putting him back down every time I wanted to play another hole that really got me..."