Thank you, Mr Lee

Watching all the speeches on tv, heartbreaking.

The past week has been a painful on for every Singaporean as we lost our founding father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. I admit, I don't know anything that he has done. All I know is that he is our founding father, the one who gave us everything that we see now in Singapore. If you had asked me what has he done, I will probably only be able to tell you he cleaned up Singapore River. That's alllll I know. So the past week, I have learnt sooo much more of him through TV.

Had the intentions to go down to pay our respect to him once they had announced that members of public can pay respect at Parliament House. Shep then contacted and asked if I wanted to head down together on Thursday but I could only make it on Saturday because of work. Initial plans was to head down on Saturday after I end my class at 12pm. Then we changed to Saturday morning which means I would have to crash Adrian's class on Friday night. But we monitored the queue on Friday afternoon and decided that we should just head down to queue after I end class. That saw me rushing home from work at 5pm, washing up and changing to something lighter, to prepare for the long wait. And I'm glad I did because I managed to wash my hair and apply some new, lighter make up. Class felt like forever.

Then I met Shep after class where I had a light dinner before we made our way down. Exited from the MRT and we were really lost! So we just followed the crowd and ended up at Civilian Memorial there. We moved slowly for about an hour in the queue before it went stagnant, just outside the tunnel to Esplanade. And we were stuck there for a good 6 hrs, at least. We were first informed that queue at Padang is closed. Then after that another officer came to say it is closed till further notice. Given Singapore's style, the queue sure will open again. So we decided to just stay on. Worst comes to worse, when day light comes and no progress, we will just head to one of the CC to pay our respect. WAH THAT WAS THE LONGEST WAIT IN MY LIFE I WAS CLOSE TO GIVING UP SEVERAL TIMES BUT NO, I REMEMBERED HOW THAT'S THE LEAST I CAN DO AND IF EVERYONE ELSE CAN DO IT, NO REASON WHY I COULDN'T!! Finally, the wait paid off. At about 6am, we were told to move. We walked the underground, pass SRC, into Padang, onto Esplanade into Floating Platform where they were really good at snaking the queue, onto Fullerton, Singapore River, and finally, Parliament House. The walk was rather refreshing after having sat at the same spot for 6 hours. Besides it was morning, air was fresh. Only thing we dreaded was the sun. But all was fine. We still managed to joke and all, all the way up till outside Parliament where we prepared to head in.

Once we came out of Parliament House, both of us felt soooo heavy for some reason. It finally hit me that Mr Lee is gone. It only hit me when I saw the casket there ): Neither of us could managed anything. When we exit, we saw this uncle weeping really badly into his handkerchief. But all we could manage was just teary eyes. I was too tired to even cry but my heart ached soooo badly. After that, we walked to City Hall to take a cab but during the walk there, neither of us could say anything. All that we talked about was the uncle we saw, how we going home, and the guy in front of us who took a photo of Mr Lee's casket and got caught. That was all. Even when on the cab, we still couldn't say anything. Idk what's going on in his mind, but all that was on my mind was, Singapore has lost her father. We're by ourselves now. The taxi uncle asked us the typical question but I left all of that to Shep to answer. I guess he saw how down we were because he didn't continue asking and the rest of our ride was in silence.

I wanna thank Shep for making sure I was ok throughout the whole thing because he knew I had a long day before going down to join the queue. I must've looked really tired on several occasions because he kept asking if I was ok. And also, making sure I'm not hungry/thirsty, and that he did not lose me in the crowd. And because I am so terrible at pushing/squeezing through people, many times he had to pull me close in order not to lose me in the crowd (': Super thankful. Though I didn't have to know how dirty it was before he cleaned it up. And having to tahan me and my Tosh craze for 10hrs, I salute him also. HAHAHAHA. I am not easy to handle and I know it. I'm glad it was him who went through this with me. Oh and also the fan which he koped from when he brought students for the NPD preview! WAHH THAT FAN IS SUPER USEFUL, I SHOULD HAVE KOPED IT HOME HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Reached home, washed up and I KO till 4pm. Woke up to eat something and went back to bed. Woke up at 9pm, played some games, scrolled social media for awhile AND WENT BACK TO BED HAHAHAHAH. I'm old ): I slept my whole Saturday away in order to recover.

Today, Sunday, was the funeral. Mr Lee's route to NUS would pass by my home area. Woke up, went for breakfast, went home shower, went down again to wait for Mr Lee. It was drizzling when we went down but after awhile, it started pouring like mad. But no, didn't give up, never will. Just kept waiting and waiting. This is Bukit Merah area, of course there are people who tried to pull tricks to get to the front. I'm quite ashamed to be a resident staying here. Sighpie. No order one the people here. I even had to tell an auntie to stop taking photos. Then I had to pull another back because she was getting sooooo close to the vehicles it was getting dangerous but she gave me the look like I was trying to stop her from saying bye to Mr Lee /: This time, I couldn't take it anymore when Mr Lee went pass us. I finally had the strength to let my tears flow. Because this was it. He is gone, forever ):

So, this is my journey on paying my respect and sending Mr Lee off.

I thank him for so many things he has done, really.
For the water, for the safety, for the home that we have, for everything that he has done. Malaysia kicked us out, so what. We survived. Mr Lee, you will always be remembered. Thank you.