It once felt as though every CNY would remain the same; the same long bus journey, the same relatives, the same food, the same mahjong games.

I once marveled at this. But time and change inevitably catches up with everyone.

Next year's CNY will be different.

I thought of this as we stood around her bed, each thinking our own thoughts. A monitor displayed her respiratory rate. A noisy ceiling fan stirred the hot humid air. Otherwise it was quiet except for the beeps emitted by the machine that was monitoring her heartbeat.

We waited for a few hours, until it all began to feel like a false alarm and I contemplated suggesting going home and coming back early next morning. It was already 2 am. We were tired. But then her heart rate started to dip again and this time it did not go back up.

She died at around 03:30 hours.

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My grandmother, she was a good person.

Up till she was diagnosed with nose cancer she had appeared to be in the pink of health.

This slowly faded away after a few months of radiotherapy.

It is profoundly painful to look at past photos, when everything was alright.

The CNY of 2008.

Such is the strange quality of a photograph.

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On positive note, I've somewhat weaned off the WoW addiction. Which is such a relief. Now I feel that I can start afresh with work.