We’ll never know what will happen to us. Some leave with time to prepare, knowing How they’ll die, What they’ll die from and a good enough idea of When they’ll die. They’ll even have a chance to choose Where to die and Who to be at their side when they die. I think it’s a luckier way to die.
Some don’t, and when it happens, most of the time we don’t get to choose How we die, What we’ll die from, When it happens, Who is around when we die and Where we’ll breath our last breath.
One day I might get stuck in a burning building, or unable to escape from some fire and die. That way, the clothes on me will be burnt, exposing my naked charred body, charred beyond recognition maybe, but still naked.
One day I might get into an accident and be decapitated below my waist. That way, I’ll be in a bloody mess with the upper part of me and my face perfectly fine and recognizable, but the lower part of me with my intestines, stomach and kidneys all spilt out on the floor.
Or one day, I might drown in the sea and be found only a week later. That way my body and skin will be bloated and my body might even fall apart when lifted, making me hideous and scary.
Or maybe even one day by some freak accident I might slip and fall while doing my business in a public toilet, hit my head and die. That way, I’ll be found with my pants and underwear half off, exposed where I won’t want to be.
If any of these or something similar happens and I am found, I hope no one will pick up his or her mobile phones and camera to snap this very private moment. I also do not wish to have pictures of my dead body spreading around online. I wouldn’t want to be seen ‘then’ and in that manner, by strangers I do not know, and my friends and families who I used to know.
It is really about the people who loved me, who are still alive, still able to see, think and feel. Please spare a thought for them and let them have a pleasant memory of me, that when they think of me, what they come to see in their memory is a person still alive, determined at times, confident at times, cheeky at times, ‘sian’ at times but still the me they know now.
For I do not want that when they think of me, among the memory of the now me, are pictures of my dead body where my spirit used to reside in, charred, naked, hideous, scary, not the me they’ll ever want to see. They’ll be heartbroken, scarred with images of my dead body tarnishing the ‘good old memory’.
Now, reread everything again, this time from a first person perspective. That is, read as though you are the one who wrote this. Then, realize that we’ll never know what will happen to us.
So when you see someone die, or see a picture of a dead body on Facebook, before you take out your camera to snap or click on that share button, think about how your love one would feel if the person in the picture you are about to take and share, is none other than you yourself.
How do you feel?
When we die, we are the ones moving on, we are the ones who are leaving the people we love behind. So spare a thought for those who are left behind, for one day, you will be the one moving on… and your love ones will be the ones left behind to bear the pain.
This is in response to the pictures of the two boys who lost their lives in a road accident yesterday and to inconsiderate reporters who invade others privacy just to get the story.