:(

Life is so fragile and unpredictable.. I had a neighbour who was kind-hearted and cheerful.. she looked after her slightly senile husband dutifully.. They were a loving couple.. The old uncle used to fall quite frequently at home and my dad and another neighbour would 'break in' to their house to help the uncle up when the old auntie was not at home.. Then, old uncle was sent to some kind of elderly home for his physiotherapy.. Every day, without fail, at 7plus in the morning, old auntie would bring old uncle down to wait for the bus that shuttles him to and fro the elderly home.. Ard 4pm she would go down agn and wait for old uncle's return.. old uncle nv need to bring keys along with him because old auntie was always there for him..

Ytd afternoon, it was the 1st time old uncle failed to see his wife waiting for him downstairs.. he took the lift up alone, came to us and asked where was his wife.. he told us old auntie might have gone to see doc as she vomitted in the morning and he didn't bring the keys out.. thinking it would be another 'break in' attempt by my dad, i continued to laze ard and play with anabel.. so dad brought a stool out to peek thru the windows to check if old auntie was in the house.. as it was too dark inside, he came back to take a torch light.. then, he spotted old auntie's legs.. she was lying on the bed in the room.. everyone shouted in an attempt to wake her up and dad even used a bamboo stick to nudge her legs.. no response.. from our angle outside, we could only see her lower body.. i shone the torch light, took a closer look and realised that old auntie's stomach wasn't moving.. sensing something was wrong, i told them we should call the police.. it was the 1st time i dialed triple 9..

while waiting for the police to arrive, another neighbour and mum tried to contact one of their sons but to no avail.. as old auntie was always paranoid, she padlocked the metal gate and triple-locked the door.. dad pulled out the window panes and stretched his hand in to unlock the upper latch and door knob.. he couldn't reach the lower latch.. we couldn't go in.. old uncle kept shouting old auntie's name thru the bedroom window, hoping she would wake up to open the door for him..

minutes later, police came followed by the ambulance.. paramedics stood outside helplessly as we were waiting for SCDF to arrive to break open the door.. i shone the torchlight at old auntie for them to see and they didn't make any comment.. i thot there was still some hope.. they started to question old uncle abt old auntie's medical history.. but old uncle was slightly deaf and senile, it was difficult to get anything out of him.. after much effort, he told them she had high blood pressure and vomitted in the morning..

SCDF finally arrived and began cutting the padlock and breaking in.. many kpos came from all over our block to see what was gg on.. old uncle sat at one corner and i stood beside him, trying to calm him down.. he kept saying how come need so many ppl to open the door, his wife was merely sleeping inside, can just use the bamboo stick to wake her up, why so troublesome now...... when SCDF finally broke open the door, i evacuated all the irritating kpos from the lift lobby area.. a policeman came out shortly and asked for old uncle.. i asked the policeman if old auntie was alright and he replied softly, "she passed away".. i covered my mouth and stood there in shock.. i couldn't believe what i heard.. i turned around and told my parents and neighbours the sad news.. everyone was shocked.. mum was carrying anabel and tears started to roll down her cheeks.. anabel kept quiet all the while and was veri obedient as thou knowing something serious was going on..

another neighbour came over and told us the police covered old auntie's face with blanket and old uncle removed the blanket and told the police not to cover her face as she was sleeping.. later at night ard 11pm, sis told me old uncle hadn't eaten his dinner.. we always heard old auntie complaining abt old uncle's huge appetite.. he just couldn't accept the fact that old auntie had left him behind.. he might be old and senile but he will always remember old auntie's name.. let's just hope he would be fine after a while..