Lesson from the E.R.

I remember an incident when I was having a duty in the Emergency Room of Fatima Medical Center. There were no single patient during that time which was around 4 o' clock in the morning. Some of my colleagues were just hanging around while some were trying to get some sleep.

Suddenly a patient was brought in, unconscious. He was a male patient, probably on his early 60's, accompanied by his daughter who was crying hard. The whole E.R. rushed to the patient and we tried to resuscitate him. As we were attending to the patient, the daughter was really crying aloud, talking to her father and telling him how much she loves him. She kept on crying and talking, asking her father to wake up. She told him that she loves him very much, but to no avail, since her father was already dead upon arrival at the hospital.

Even after doing post-mortem care, the woman just keep on saying how much she loves her dad and was even praying at the side of his cadaver.

It just struck me at that instant, why just now say those words of affection when the person cannot hear you anymore. Since then, I tried to kiss my mom every morning. I tried to hug my dad every now and then. I use "sorry" and "thank you" as often as I could because I don't want to come to a point when it will be all too late because those words are being addressed to a lifeless person.