Ah po's third 7th

Today was the third week since ah po left us. It was raining cats and dogs the whole day. By evening, though the rain stopped, there was no stars in the sky and the moon was blurred by passing clouds. Third sis and hubby were first to reach ASL. I arrived at 9.10pm after Fourth bro's wife. She came on her own. I heard she took the feeder bus and missed the stop. Unlike the first 7th, bata po was not there. As usual, fourth bro's wife was very systematic. She followed the instructions laid down by the priest. All was alright at first until the panic button was pressed. The "fa gao" was missing. The routine was disrupted. Where to find fa gao at this hour? At first, the second bro wanted to cycle 2km to the nearest confectionary. His son stopped him. It was rather dangerous as the floor was still slippery and the road condition was a big question mark. Everyone put on their thinking hats. Fangie came up with a bright idea. Teckie would be coming later. She called him to get it along his way. Poor teckie was in woodlands eating dinner with his gf at that time. He had to rush back to Pasir Ris to get Tom, buy "fa gao" along the way and rush to ASL by 11pm. When a "Neo" was given a task, he/she delivered.

Meanwhile, the folks at ASL finished setting up the place for the ritual by 10pm. The second bro's wife came home around this time after work. All of them were sitting around talking about the time at the wake. The case of the missing blanket on the last day was revisited. Noone knew whether it went to. Then the case of the other family was revisited. It is nostalgic. *sniff sniff* Not going to go too deep into it. Basically, there was two schools of thought. One obviously who refused to forgive as they had been a victim of the wrath of the other family. The other was ready to put down the burden of the past and felt that the next generation was innocent. There were talk about ah po's wish to cut off all ties with the other family. There were also talks on 4Ds and Toto. It was interesting to see how creative some could be to interpret how they could associate every published 4D numbers with events that had happened so far. :Þ

By 1040pm, the other families arrived. You would see how the original group broke up and formed into the clusters. As usual, all the young ones retreated to the room. Some went to the kitchen. Some sat outside. A few scattered round the living room. Just 3 mins before 11pm, techie arrived with the "fagao". By 11pm, we began the ritual, which was a more simplified procedure from first 7th. Although simplified, it ended at 1210pm. The group chatted for a while before they dispersed at 1240pm.