Tragedy strikes

I received a disturbing text yesterday from a friend. It read:

"My dad passed away this morning :("

The sad face being the understatement of the century. It's funny how a semi-colon and an open bracket can describe the simpleness and depth of sadness these days. Indonesians are quite fatalistic people, especially when it comes to death. In a country surrounded by tsunamis, earthquakes, corrupt police, and no health support or system from the government, the people here have been accustomed to this tragedy, but when it happens to someone's daughter, son or in this case, father, it is still a sad, sad occurrence.

Today I visited my friend at her mother's home, and in between conversations about everyday happenings there were tears, regrets, dumbfounds and thoughtful smiles at the stubbornness, gems of wisdom and peculiar things our parents do and say to us. It makes us realise that the older we get the more faults we find in our parents and the more endearing it makes them as well as how much we still need our parents' help even at our age, because at the end of the day, we are all still finding our way.