It’s been a rather ’emo’ week for me.

We lost an uncle to cancer on Monday. He died just slightly over half a year after he was diagnosed… very sudden, very sad.

The day he died happened to be All Saints’ Day, and his obituary in the papers read: “Gone fishing with the Lord and the saints”, together with a snapshot of him on a boat, showing off his catch. I kinda liked that.

Then, there was the senseless and tragic murder of 19-year-old Darren Ng, which I’m sure you’ve read about in the papers.

He was just hanging out with his friends at the Downtown East theme park last Saturday. They somehow got into a staring match with another bunch of youngsters, who set upon them with knives and choppers.

The poor boy couldn’t outrun his attackers, and was hacked to death, in full view of the people there.

God knows why those guys were carrying weapons at a place packed with families and kids. One can only begin to wonder what was inside their heads… The brutality of the attack was simply mind-boggling.

I’m glad that the police have arrested four guys over the incident. All of them are around the same age as the victim, mind you.

Of course, that will bring little comfort to Darren’s family… It was very painful to read of their grief and my heart goes out to them.

Another incident which took place this week could easily have resulted in a massive tragedy.

I’m talking about Qantas flight QF32, which was forced to make an emergency landing at Changi Airport after one of its four engines exploded in mid-air, just 10 minutes after taking off from Singapore. Parts of the engine fell over Batam, leading people to believe the plane had crashed there.

Thankfully it didn’t. Through the God’s Grace, it made a safe landing and no one was hurt.

This entire week has made me think about the fragility of life, and just how precious it is. This song is about saying goodbye, and how hard it is to accept the transience of life. Lyrics below:

Fragile
© Music and Lyrics by Marcel Lee Pereira, 5 Nov, 2010

As children we spent
Our days believing
We were super-heroes
We would never die
Man, we could even fly

Then life dawned on us
At the tender age of 10
Someone was taken from us
We never saw ’em again
Oh, we learnt the hard way

Chorus
Tell me how to say goodbye
For you and I
Are fragile
So very fragile
Don’t believe we cannot die
‘cos you and I
Are fragile
So very fragile

Nothing we can keep but
Pictures to remember
A friend who’s gone forever
Their faces on the wall
Are a blessing to us all

Chorus
Tell me how to say goodbye
For you and I
Are fragile
So very fragile
Don’t believe we cannot die
‘cos you and I
Are fragile
So very fragile

Bridge
A lifetime is too brief
Too brief to make amends
For time thrown away in useless things
Moments dissolve like rice paper on candy
A chapter closes at the first breath
Like touch-me-nots in an abandoned field