You may remember I wrote about
another funeral, that of Daniel, 16, a school friend of Tim’s.
His grave was there beside Luke’s, 9, who died of rabies
last year. These were terrible premature deaths, like many in
the tsunami. However, Mrs Biswas’s death and funeral, after
a full life, although sudden, seemed almost beautiful in its simplicity.
It made me a little less fearful of my death.
All this talk of death and dying and the tsunami makes one very
grateful for life. We were in Thailand when the tsunami hit. Kelli
and Daniel joined us from the United States. Happily, we were
on the eastern beach of Hua Hin and knew nothing of it until we
saw the news. So the subject of death has been very close to us.
We went to the west coast a week later and saw two broken, washed
up, fishing boats. The beach at Au Nang was saved by a good seawall.
On nearby Pee Pee Island all was wiped away. We felt the tension
of being tourists at a time of mourning, but listened to a few
stories and gave restaurants their only business for the day.
Some highlights from the holiday were: Hilary not getting stung
by a jellyfish, Tim seeing a shark as big as Hilary, reading books
on the beach, winning the New Year’s Eve’s sandcastle
competition (dragon eating a mermaid), beach volleyball, learning
Thai cooking, returning to the same places we have visited occasionally
over the last 23 years.
Now it is back to the cold of Mussoorie. Scott is off on his
travels to encourage a project at Raxaul, near the Nepal boarder
(much warmer than here). The Emmanuel Hospital Association has
sent a medical team and been assigned a tsunami-hit island to
care for. We are so far away we are not involved, but maybe we
will be asked to do something.
It is snowing, the pipes have frozen, and we have new black lab
puppy. A good time to stay inside and write emails.
Melanie
Timothy, Daniel, Melanie, Scott, Kelli, Hilary as mermaid, on
the beach at
Huahin
The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
114 |
