The Learning Teacher

Malaysian poet, Muhammad Haji Salleh’s lines:

death like conception/arrives with the winds of fate

rang so true to me today as I tried to come to terms to the unexpected and untimely death of my friend and colleague, Lily Mastura. It all seems unreal and will take awhile to sink in.

What really pains me is that her death might have been avoided. That, if there were more competent doctors they could have diagnosed her condition accurately and saved her life! What an unnecessary loss of life indeed!

Am afraid I am not among those who accept that it was God’s will (even if might have been) when man make mistakes. I just want to ask why are these people so reckless with our lives, when they have taken on the responsibility to get us well.

My faith in government hospitals can only sink further and I hope I never have to depend on their goodwill.

 Many of us will remember Lily for the fun person that she was (I hate using past tense for my friends). Everytime I met her along the faculty corridor or at a meeting, it was great to see her smile and have a short banter. I will remember her for her sunglasses and for so many things over the last 20 years. I will always remember how fashionably dressed she was before she took a conservative turn. Even then she dressed ever so well.

We will miss her in our ways and my thoughts go to her children and wish them well.

Rest well, dear Lily.