even the skies mourn

perhaps it's a coincidence, but it is symbolic to me.

the day before he passed away (last sunday), the whole island experienced a thunderstorm. a storm so huge that many areas experienced floods. i was driving to my brother's place and had to negotiate quite a few roads where localised water-ponding had occurred. and at many stretches of the road, it was half-a-wheel deep and i feared my car would stall. that was really weird, considering we are in the midst of a dry spell and that we had not experienced rain for some many days. i wrote in my facebook then that "even the skies are crying". i had expected him to pass on that day and had hinted about it in this particular facebook status update, but felt it was not respectful to write it down.

he left us quietly that night. 3.18am. for the whole of the week, apart from a quick passing showers yesterday, the skies stayed dry. and it allowed the nation to mourn and to pay our respects to him.

today is his funeral. i brought mum out to breakfast and there was this eerie silence all around. many people had donned black, white or sombre colours. it was still early and some 4 hours to the funeral, but everyone was talking about it. and since morning, the skies was heavy with dark clouds, threatening to rain again. and as i type, light rain has started falling. i am really hoping the sky holds and that there would be no thunderstorm, at least until the funeral is over. but i am pessimistic about it. the skies are also mourning. despite this, i am sure many will brave the rain as they line the roads to bid him the final farewell.

:-(