Entering November

Entering the month of November, remind me of my late brother. I wonder if he lives now, how he will look like. Will he look more like me or like my other brother? One thing for sure he look exactly like my father, they used to say that he was a copycat of him. My brother… I miss you so much.

He was a sweet and lovely boy. I remember his smile, his cheerfulness, his voice, his innocent. He was born as the last child in the family, on Nov 17, 1982. He grown up as an attractive boy, like another boy… he loves to play around, not naughty but very active. We loved to play together, sometimes we fought too. My parents always stand for him no matter whose fault (grin). Sometimes I fought him just to have my parents’ attention (smile).

He died when he was 9… well, almost 10 years old. He died when all of his friends have to take their exam for the next grade. We never know his real disease that took him away. One day he came home from school, he was running around the house and fell with his left arm tried to hold his entire body. After that his left arm hurt, we brought him to the doctor. The first doctor directly diagnosed it as a cancer without further inspection. We didn’t believe him, so we went to orthopedic. The orthopedic asked him to have x-ray and he decided to treat his arm like he was having a bone fracture. He put his arm in a cast and turn out to be a wrong move. His arm got swollen and my mom brought him back to the orthopedic. Again, the doctor cut the cast and put a new cast. My brother cried all the time since he fell, even with his arm in a cast… he cried harder. We didn’t know what to do.

When our father came home (he was move to another city by his company, we planned to move after the school holiday), he decided to put my brother in the hospital. The doctor at the hospital couldn’t find out his real disease and his health condition became worst. On the third day they operated on his adhering intestine. After the surgery, he has bleeding for several days. Only a week at the hospital he finally gave up, he died on Monday morning (May 11, 1992) – around 8 am. The doctor said he suffered pleurisy before he die. So, if you wonder what was his disease…? I don’t have the answer. I don’t know…

I love you and miss you so much, my brother… May you rest in peace...