HOW FRAIL HUMANS ARE

When I reached home at 6.55 this evening, I noticed that a canopy had been put up at the house of one of the neighbours who lived about 5 houses opposite to my place. My next door neighbour informed me that the neighbour, a fifty-three year old man, had died in an explosion while at work along with two of his co-workers. It seems that the man's only daughter is about 10 or 11 years old and his wife is working as a seamstress in Singapore. I am told that the wife will only manage to arrive back here early the next morning.

Below is the news update that I got from STAR online:

The Star Online > Nation
Monday March 17, 2008MYT 6:50:36 PM
Three workers killed in gas blast
IPOH: Three workers were killed in a gas explosion while carrying out welding works inside an underground tunnel of a flour factory near Segari, about 15km from Lumut, Perak
One of the men died instantly in the 2pm incident while the two others died after being taken to the Manjung Hospital
Manjung deputy OCPD Deputy Supt Ahmad Rabawi Abd Jamil said two other workers, stationed above ground on the factory's private jetty nearby, suffered serious injuries.
The force of the explosion tore open that part of the tunnel.

How frail we human beings are! Only yesterday, I passed by the house of the deceased on my way back from Ipoh and I recall he would usually stand at the gate to chat with his other neighbours. Now, the man is dead. I am not sure if the relatives have taken the corpse back yet as it was still at the mortuary when I got home.

Also, this morning I was informed that one of my fellow teachers who taught in SMK Clifford in Kuala Kangsar, Mr Nadarajah, died of pneumonia during the school holidays. He was only 45 years old. He leaves behind a wife and three young children. I met him at the Gourment Centre in Ipoh sometime last year.

There was news of another death that I heard from my colleagues in school this morning. I cannot verify the authenticity of the news as my colleague told me that she too heard it from her neighbour. Apparently, there was a teacher in Ayer Tawar who committed suicide. Hopefully, it is not anyone I know. This last piece of news is most saddening because the person took his or her own life while my neighbour lost his in an accident and my colleage succumbed to illness.

This will really make me want to try live every minute and every second to the fullest. We actually don't know how long we will be here on this earth. Death knows no bias, it does not differentiate between young or old, rich or poor, healthy or sickly and mighty or weak.