Seemingly healthy

My mum was a very well disciplined person. She read and knew a lot about good habit, good diet and the ways to take care of health. I remember when I was in form 6, she suffered an illness that required the installation of a heart pacemaker to regulate her heartbeats. I had contributed my saving for her to put on the machine that lasted her almost a life time. That was the most critical illness she ever suffered as far as I could remember since I was his son at that time.

Compared to my dad, my mum was very much healthier during her days. She slept and woke up early in the morning and went for Taichi exercise, did not take on high cholesterol food and control the intake of sugar though she liked sweet things such as red-bean soap etc. She used to advise me to eat more vegetables, fruits and high fibre food so as to keep the body system in balance and be more resistant to illness. She was healthy and strong, active and agile, never heard her complained about discomfort in any part of her body. On the contrary, my dad is a smoker and he always suffers from coughing, fever and not feeling well because of weather changes. He has asthma but insists on smoking a stick or two cigarettes whenever his breathing condition improves. Even from appearance wise, my skinny father seems to be weaker than my mum a lot more.

Despite all these, my mum suffered a peritoneum illness, whereby the peritoneum membrane seemed to be not able to hold tight liquid that seeped in and built-up in her stomach. She died at an age of 70+. My father is still strong, and he is able to ride a bicycle to the market to do some shopping; sometimes he cycles with one hand holding an umbrella if it drizzles a bit or the sun is too hot. He is now at the age of 82, the same age as Tun Dr. Mahatir.  God has blessed him abundantly with his health.

I was devastated when I first learned of my mum's illness, how could this happen to her?  God, you mean all her discipline, good diet, exercise and good habit could not help her even in prolonging her life for another 10 or 15 more years? This is true! If God so decides one day we have to go back to Him, no matter what we do and how we try, our stay on this earth will not last even 1 second longer!

A seemingly healthy person is not that healthy afterall. Despite of this, we still have to maintain a healthy life-style and then pray to God for his mercy and kindness so that we could be healthy and age gracefully over the years. There is nothing more important than asking for health in our everyday prayer! May God bless us all with a healthy body for that is the greatest wealth that He has bestowed upon us on this world!