Food for thought

I would like to start my first post of October by paying tribute to one of my friends.

Probably no one I know would know her. But I met her in an online game. Brilliant kid! Sharpest wit I ever met.

Nikole died of brain cancer in March this year after a 2 year fight. I only found out because of an email reply from her aunty who is helping to inform all her friends.

Before she died, she done a lot to help others. Spent a long time trying to help others along until she herself ran out of time.

I spoke with her aunty. Her mum could not deal with the sorrow and left to be with her 3 months after she passed away. Now its only her father trying to deal with the pain of 2 losses in so short a time. Her aunty tells me that he would occasionally log into Niky's account just to see her in-game avatar when his longing for her gets too much...

Her aunty told me, she was so passionate about life and fought to hold on... but that night she died, what got her was (according to her father) because of some posts on a forum. She posts on that forum alot because she plays online games to fulfil a fantasy life she knows she will never have.

After she passed away, her parents read those posts. They jeered her. Laughed at her condition for being "the kid with the cancer disease".

Her aunty in relating those accounts from her parents, those hurtful remarks probably that could have finally did her in... :( Her condition was already in a very fragile state.

Maybe not. But still, no one deserves that kind of jeering. Period.

When I was in primary school, I was fat and overweight. All my life people have been calling me unkind names. I am still fat and overweight... not because I want to.. because thats how my body and lifestyle is... and so I emphatise with her situation a lot when I met her online...

Now she is dead. I hope the people who jeered her are satisfied.

I often wondered... this is directed to you out there who likes to jeer at others...

Do you think the person receiving your jeer will be happy?

If you know the answer, means you are being mean, and no one will ever feel good about it. No other reactions will be expected by somebody who is being jeered or insulted.

So the next time you want to send some unkind remarks to someone, or anyone.

Don't.

Think before you do it. For Nikole, her life ended with people jeering her as she died... not a pleasant way to finally lose her fight to cancer. She would have been 19 years old in a few days.

Pray for her soul. And to those who jeered her... one day you yourself will be judged. Don't expect to be forgiven.

Pray you don't meet me.
CJ