Taken Young

During my university years, I had plenty of friends. One of them had a brother who was around 5 years younger than her. On the second year at the university, she decided that she wanted to move to Australia to further her studies there. She was already preparing for the student visa and everything. Her mother had a friend who had an Australian citizenship and the friend lived there, so she was ready to help my friend.

While preparing for the papers, her brother got sick. At first they thought that he had sprained his ankle or something since the pain started to come right after he played basketball. He was an active boy and back then he was in Junior High School. They took him to a Shinshe (traditional Chinese medicine man) to have a therapeutic massage and the Shinshe also gave him some medicine (herbal concoction or something).



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The pain didn't dissipate. The massage was painful and he was always crying during the tough ordeal. After all, the boy was only about 14 or 15 years old. His condition didn't get any better. After a while, he even had to use walking sticks to help him walk. The family decided to take him to a doctor and what they found out was really shocking.

He suffered from BONE CANCER!!! X-ray photos showed that the cancer had already eaten parts of his hip bone...no amount of massage therapies could help. He was treated in a hospital for a while and the family fasted and prayed for a miracle. My friend lost A LOT of weight during these agonizing months.

As her friends, my friends and I visited her brother at the hospital, but we didn't even know what to say!!! We knew the condition was already so bad, so we knew it was hopeless unless God decided to give him a miraculous healing. When we were there, we didn't stay long since the brother was crying due to the pain. We almost couldn't bear to see him like that.

My friend's plan to move to Australia was postponed...and in the end it was cancelled when her brother died. Her parents didn't want her to leave, since she was all they've got left. It all happened so fast...I think in less than a year God took him away. Maybe it was for the best so that he didn't suffer too long.

We went to the mortuary to give our condolences and it was such a sad affair. The room was SO full of people: relatives, teachers, school friends. His classmates sang his fave song: "Rain and Tears". He loved playing that song with his guitar, so they said goodbye to him that way. I felt choked with tears...he was taken so young...

We'll never know when God takes away our loved ones...remember not to take them for granted. Life is SO precious...

P.S. Now my friend's gotten married in Indo and she's just given birth to a healthy baby boy. :-))))) One life taken, another life springs forth...the cycle of life...