Wake of my 5th uncle.

My 5th uncle, a brother of my dad, passed away over the last weekend. He was an artist. A real artist who paints and sells his masterpieces in art galleries. Ain't that so .... "wow"?

But he and his family were never close to us. They stay in KL all their lives, but we never visit them, not at least whilst in these 7 years we settled down here. When I was young, my parents did take us to see them once in a while, like, really once in awhile. It had been many many years since we really last saw each other. According to my mom, there were some squabbles over, well, family issues.

I don't know why, but somehow, the cousins I have who share the same family name with me, are just aren't close. There are some in Melbourne who are extremely friendly and kind, but they are children of my dad's cousins, so it's under another family tree branch away. For the cousins who are directly under my grandparents' branch, we are just never close. As a chinese though, I had been taught that these cousins are supposedly like my own brothers and sisters.

So the kids had never known this family relative of mine, who is so close in relation yet so far away. When I told them my uncle passed and his profession, they were nonchalant, nevertheless.

Anyway, I went for his wake, and since KT wanted to pay his respects too, we had no choice but to bring the kids along. Shall I say, maybe it's the first wake they had been to. I was sceptical at first, but, they behaved well throughout and even went to see my uncle who was lying in his coffin! I myself dared not see! Well, at least, they had seen him for the first and the last time. I felt a pang of guilt, really.

3 nights for the wake, and I went there again on the 3rd night, bringing my parents along, who came back all the way from SIngapore. They were supposed to be heading back to Ipoh directly the next day, but plans changed so they had to detour here. I met my cousins (children of the deceased) and I couldn't recognize them! They have grown so much! Oh well, aren't we all? 2 of them are residing in US while the youngest child is in China. The son is a cosmetic surgery doctor now, and they are all around my age. Needless to say, they are very good artists too!

May the soul of my 5-pak rest in peace.