Monthly Archives: April 2014

Tribute to A Stranger

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There are two events in a person’s life that would automatically pull people together — birth and death.

The difference may be that during birth, people chat about what life could be for the infant.

In death, people reminisce the life of the person. Perhaps, it is even in death that one would get to know a person more than when s/he was alive.

This post is for you. The stranger I knew since 10 years ago.

He was our prom king. Daniel Radcliffe would probably even be amused if he got the chance to meet his look-alike. No one seemed to think that he would be the batch’s “first blood” as per DoTA parlance. His death came as a shock. Too young. Gone. Too soon.

I have known him for four years during high school and have continued to see him in the main road near his University. I never really got the chance to really know him. He was one of the cool kids. I, on the other hand, was one of those bullied geeks. I always just remember looking at him from a far, admiring his good looks. Whenever I try to picture the times I have seen him, I only happen to remember his slumped back with his bag. I could also tell you about his smile and how silly he could be together with the other boys in the batch. But then, that’s it. Nothing else. Nada.

It would be apparent by the time you read this paragraph that I have no right at all to even have this post for him. I could not tell you anecdotes of his life and how he lived his barely 26 years on Earth. But I could tell you how his life, and death had an impact on some people I know. And on me.

It was while I was doing groceries that I knew of his death through an acquaintance, It was also during this time that I learned about his love life. Really, it’s amazing how one could get hold of such intimate information from practically a stranger. His girlfriend died in her sleep over a year ago. Some would say that it was cardiac arrest. This week, he was also found lifeless in his sleep. It was an apparent aneurysm. I guess, they are happy together now in the afterlife, if one would believe in such.

The eulogies during his wake were heartwarming, more like a testimony of their love and devotion to each other. What struck me the most was knowing that he continued to sleep in his girlfriend’s room with her ashes beside him after her passing. Heartbreaking actually, that his death somehow gives me comfort knowing that at last, he is now at peace with the love of his life. Death could not take them apart for long.

His death also provided as a mini reunion for our high school batch, ten years after graduating. It is a sad event to be together, but an opportunity nevertheless. For me, his wake allowed me to know him more. But also, it made me realize how aloof I had been, not even reaching out hard enough. Perhaps because of the fear of rejection.

During the wake, I found myself thinking if I had been somebody more than a stranger to him. If he would appreciate my presence in his wake. I guess I would never know. But him being just a stranger to me will not stop me from paying my last respects to his life. In one way or another, he touched my life. Somebody Higher must have decided that this person’s presence in my life would be significant, if not his life, perhaps in his death.