My Last Days: Meet Zach Sobiech

osteosarcoma.  the word my dad mentioned to me before on the condition that took his brother's life away when he was 19. and this video made me cried so bad.

initially i wanted to share this in facebook but sharing this in my blog felt much more personal.  many people have shared this video, and the message that they got here is about cherishing life and live life to the fullest.  but for me this video brought light to me on how sad and difficult it is when one is losing a dear family member.

no one mentioned about the uncle that i've never met, maybe due to the pain that it still caused. but there are  old pictures of him with my cousin (who was 2/3 years old at that time) and whenever i look at that picture, any of my relatives sees me staring at it would remind me about him as the uncle that i've never met.  he looks happy and smiley, but who knows the pain that he has went through, especially at that era when breakthrough in medicine was still scarce.  even now there's no cure for this condition.

when i was a kid during all souls day we would visit the graveyards and clean them up while offering prayers and food to the ancestors.  but when it comes to my uncle's graved only the kids are allowed to clean it.  as of tradition adults that are older are not allowed to clean the graves of a younger person.  i would imagine at that time when there wasn't any kids around, since my uncle was the youngest, did they just leave the grave alone?  i've always been fascinated of what they offered to him, with drinks like coke and kfc, as how he would like it, unlike the ancestors they would offer tea and traditional chinese food instead.

my dad has always reminded me about not eating too much instant noodles because till now he still believes it was part of the cause of the condition that took his brother's life away.  both my parents constantly remind me to try not to fall and get any bruises from knocks for fear it would cause osteosarcoma.  when i ask dad how did they found out about the cancer he said it was on a sports day when my uncle fell and broke his leg that they knew he had cancer. zach had lived a longer life than my uncle had.  if i'm not mistaken my uncle only had a year after he was told he had cancer.

both my dad and grandpa took him to kuala lumpur from kuantan in search for better medication.  but from the term terminal cancer it sort of means this condition is pretty much incurable and the medication helps to ease the pain.  i guess it was still a painful thing for my dad to mention because he couldn't go on describing the events without a tear in his eye.  i didn't realize my naivety at that time because i was thinking it was leukemia where it is more common in young kids.  and i blamed the doctors for being stupid.  and i didn't bother to look up the word when my dad told me osteosarcoma, and told me to remember the term.  until i stumbled upon this video.

watching this video made me think, wow, it's so great that they got this taped.  and then i thought that it would make accepting his death even harder, and make them miss him even harder when they re-watch this.  but a part of me thought that at least it's better than to not have the chance to listen to his voice ever again.  it was such a debate in my mind.  death still sound foreign in my mind.  and i look up to this kid for being so brave and accepting to what comes his way.