My grandmother-in-law passed away in the afternoon of 5th Aug, aged 91 years. When it happened, I was at a customer's meeting. I saw my phone ringing and my mil's photo flashing on my phone. I immediately sensed something amiss, just did not know what went wrong and picked up the call immediately.
True enough, mil sounded very distressed and asked me if I could rush back home to take care of the kids, "gmil is not moving".. I interupted the meeting that had just started and excused myself, fortunately there were also representatives from my company present to takeover.
Both my inlaws (MIL and FIL) are hainanese. Perhaps you would had noticed that hainanese, compared to other dialect groups, are more "old-fashioned". However, with that "old-fashionness" comes a great sense of family spirit. When my gmil died peacefully in her sleep at her home, all her children dropped whatever they were doing and rushed there. Many of the grandchildren also left their work to see their beloved-grandmother for the last time. At the wake, you'll see swollen eyes of old and not-so-old, only the little ones were still playfully having games at the void deck, perhaps too young to understand the meaning of death.
I never had a chance to really interact with my gmil. When I was introduced to her, she was already a little senile. However, just looking at how wonderful all her children turned out, there's no need to talk to her to know that my gmil was a great person.
I still standby a statement I wrote when my friend's mum passed away, you're never old enough to lose your mother.
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