a bittersweet goodbye

After service ended last Sunday, i made my way out of the church preparing, as per usual, to head off to find a quiet place to sit down and get some urgent work done. Earlier in the day i had been pondering over whether to break my normal Sunday post-church routine by rushing home to watch the live telecast of the State Funeral once the service had ended. In the end, i decided to carry on with my usual routine, since if i didn't i risked not being fully prepared for the next day's worth of lessons, and i reasoned that i still would be honoring Mr Lee through working in the interests of improving the learning experience of the students (in retrospect this sounds a bit lame, but it made sense to me at the time).

Exiting the church, with the rain still heavy, i noticed a sizable crowd of people gathered about fifty metres away at the fence facing the Padang, with several hundreds more along the pavement, perched at SRC, and pretty much anywhere else there was space. The rain may have had passed its heaviest moment, but it was still not letting up. Yet, it did not matter to anyone, with everyone eagerly anticipating the 21-gun salute and the funeral cortege that was soon to pass. On the spur of the moment, i decided to join them, armed with a flimsy and leaky umbrella which did just enough to keep me from getting soaked through like how many of them were after braving through the heaviest of the rain while i had been safely inside the church. Thankfully, i was able to find a spot that had a decent enough view of St Andrew's Road.

It wasn't more than five minutes before the first of the guns fired, dramatically scattering the flock of mynahs that had gathered at the Padang, seemingly oblivious to what was about to happen (though befitting the occasion, they were suitably clad in black). Following a brief moment of shock at the sudden loud bang coming from the gun, the crowd erupted into loud cheers. A couple of equally loud bangs later, the escalation in volume of the cheers indicated that the cortege was on its way. That's when the chants of "Lee Kuan Yew! Lee Kuan Yew!" started to ring, refusing to be drowned out by the aerial flypast above us. Then the cortege passed us, and what a poignant moment it was to see Mr Lee's coffin draped in the flag of the country he loved so much and gave so much up for. I didn't exactly have any tears welling up in my eyes, but nevertheless there was much gratitude and respect mixed with grief welling up in my heart. And i'm sure everyone gathered there felt the same way.

And that was it. It couldn't have lasted more than ten to fifteen minutes in total, but it was time very meaningfully spent. I quickly headed off to get some work done, thankful that i had one last opportunity to say my personal goodbye to someone whom i never really appreciated until it was too late.