As the year draws to a close, few of us who used to share a regular transport to the office, may inevitably still think of our bus driver - Mr Neo. I never got his full name, been calling him Mr Neo for past 7 years. Day-in day-out, faithfully he fetched us to work every morning without fail - rain or shine. The only time he ever taken leave usually in Dec, and just mere few days (he would always arrange another person to cover in his absence). To me, Mr Neo is a hardworking fellow and man of few words. He told us fare will be going up five dollars more next Jan. I intentionally paid him the extra for month of Dec and he promptly returned me the next day. I gathered recently, how one of them was hospitalised for 3 months and on her return, Mr Neo declined to accept her full 3 months payment (Neither did he give up her seat to other potential passenger). Mr Neo has such patience, I tend to rush down in the morning, many times I would call him, to give me a few more moments, he never for once ‘told me’ off. He had every right.
18th Dec Tues morning, like the day before, looked at my watch, reminded myself to ‘speed up a bit’ expecting van as usual 7.50am. Received a call - Mr Neo passed away Tues early 1am. Apparently he felt shortness of breath, woke up, his wife called emergency ambulance, neither his wife nor ambulance’s arrival could revive him. He was only 47 years old, his family members reported no visible heart problem symptoms displayed or ever mentioned by Mr Neo himself. The coroner’s reported congested heart vessels related restricted his blood flow - not an over-night condition, been slowly ‘building up’ over the years ...
What have I got to say to myself ? My heart wrenched, I told myself - just because I paid him every month without fail doesn’t mean he is ‘obligated’ to turn up & pick me everyday (he did faithfully fetched us over the years, I’m really thankful and appreciative), but one day he just ‘quit’, no-show and really, he doesn’t even ‘owe’ me a reason. I’m tired of cliché - ‘ .. not take it for granted ...’ wanted to ‘shout’ this out to remind myself - the van didn’t break down for good; the man did not ‘quit us’ for better prospects (incidentally the last months Mr Neo has ‘lost’ 2-3 regular passengers, that must had ‘cut-down’ his monthly earnings) .. our ‘routine’ tasks may one day be ‘broken’ & get ‘interrupted’ by one of the least expected reasoning our mind could ‘ever’ think of ... Dear Lord, teach me and give me ‘strength’ & ‘wisdom’ each day to do things ‘Right’ from start and not ‘regret’ there after, even at times my heart may ‘resist’ ...
