Thoughts On Death

Meme from Simple American.

You suffer a tragic accident. You have one minute before you will die? Mentally you are lucid and composed. You have your cell (mobile) phone convenient despite the accident. Who do you call?

I will call my maternal grandmother. She was the one who took care of me and my siblings when we were children and when our parents were out for work. I hope calling her will help her make some sense to my death, and bring her at least some closure and comfort for my unexpected death.


You are in a plane. The pilot informs you that the plane’s engines have failed and it will crash shortly. The plane is email capable and you have time enough to send five short emails. This is not your pc so your email address book is not available. The pc also only allows one email addy per email sent and you have no cut and paste feature available. Who do you write?

I will write to my younger brother since I know his email address by heart (and my parents don't have email address) and ask him to inform the immediate family members of the plane crashing soon, and to thank them for bearing with me these years.

I will write to Mystic to thank her for her friendship.

I will also write to J., to thank her for being there for lending me the company and much treasured friendship during those times I was down.

I think I will just stop at three, there are still many people to write to, but I think I would have difficulties mustering enough strength to go beyond three in that kind of situation.


You go to a regular check up and the doctor determines you have exactly 365 days to live. Fortunately, you have a disease that will not infirm you until the last few days of your life. Nothing in science will curtail this illness. Luckily, you purchased a great insurance policy for one million and it will payout once a doctor confirms your status. Bonus is this money cannot be taxed so you get the entire amount. What do you do for the last year of your life?

I'll put aside $400 000 to set up a trust fund to fund my parents' and maternal grandparents living expenses after my death. That could also be used to fund my brothers' education if they choose to go for higher education.

Another $400 000 goes to another trust fund to use for charitable causes. I shall get my two brothers to manage this trust fund, I am sure that they will manage it wisely.

The remaining shall go to fund me to travel about the world, alone. I think I would be feeling so confused about the news of an impending death that I would not make a good travel companion. Anyway, travelling alone often urges me to stay independent. Being alone can lend me the space that I might need to face the impending death, though I might feel lonely to be all alone facing it by myself. But I think I would not like showing that most vulnerable side of myself in front of another human being. If companionship is needed, I would consider sponsoring a friend or two to join me at certain points of my journey.

I hope to travel on foot about the Europe continent. But of course, I shall buy a two-way plane ticket to get me to a starting point somewhere in Europe first. I can't imagine myself walking all the way to Europe from Singapore.

Along the way, I could try to find double bass masters to give me a number of double bass classes. Then I could try to immerse in the culture. I wish to take some nice photos to share, and hopefully take short photography courses and other courses-of-interest while I am on the journey. If possible, I hope to visit China too and travel about on foot, just in hope to learn more about my own culture and heritage. Then before I pass away, I shall return to Singapore, and travel about Singapore on foot.


You can only say two things of importance to your children before you die. What do you say?

I don't have any children, and I don't think I would like to answer this. I think I am still too unwise to share wise lessons to the next generation.