Love Of Her Life

There's this email that I rarely access due to the massive amount of junk I have in them but I did this morning. One of the email was titled Sad News and I was reluctant to open it since I saw the name of the sender because I know I might not be able to take the news.

Just a little foreground - I met this elderly Australian couple on Star Cruise some years back and got along very well with them. There's also a very touching love story behind this. Lorraine and Peter started out as friends in a club of elderly friends. Peter had a sickly wife who later on passed away. Lorraine had a hard life. Her husband left her with her kids. She had to sell flowers on the streets to earn a living. She had a hard life and her knees were constantly giving her problems. She could hardly walk because during her younger days, she spent too much time standing while selling flowers. But after Peter's wife passed away, he took on the responsibility to look after Lorraine. He loved her like no one else did or would. He would cook for her and as much as she hated veggie, he would mash brocolli with mashed potatoes so that she would take some veggie. He brought her on cruises after cruises because she couldn't walk much and all they really enjoyed, was going out on a cruise and let the world pass them by. Needless to say, he spent loads of money to bring her to such trips and still continue to work backstage at a university. Life was good.

Whenever they come to Singapore, I would try to bring them out or have a meal with them. They call me their little princess, the daughter that they'd never have and to me, they were like my godparents.

They got married about a year or 2 back...

When I saw the title of the email, my first thought was "something must have happened to Lorraine..." until I read the entire mail...

Dear XXX,
I am a friend of Lorraine’s and assisting her with accessing Peter’s emails. Sadly Peter passed away on November 22 after suffering a massive heart attack. Peter was in the garden when he suffered the attack and although he never regained consciousness Lorraine was able to say her goodbyes during the 48 hours after the attack.

Lorraine has asked me to send this email as she knows you would want to know and would have wanted to know sooner unfortunately email was her only way of contacting you. She has tried your phone several times to no avail.

Lorraine’s phone number is Australia XXX.

On behalf of Lorraine Burrows,
Yours sincerely,
XXX

Peter has left Lorraine and frankly, I would rather truth be the other way around. Now, there's no one to look after Lorraine and to love her like Peter did. Thankfully, she did experience this beautiful love story which actually happened to herself. I can only pray hard that she will be strong and laugh like the way she did when Peter was around. Life without Peter would be very hard for her I would imagine.

Right now, I can only blame myself for procrastinating endlessly to visit them in their Esperance home and not being able to see Peter for the very last time. I know he's in God's good hands and I can only pray...

Peter, I love you for the man you were and the man you were for Lorraine. Thanks for all the love you showered on me even though I wasn't your very own and made all those trips to visit me whenever you could. I'll miss all the smiles and emails telling me that you're going to be here for yet another vacation, just another excuse to pay me a visit. I miss you dearly.

PS. After speaking to Lorraine, I'm ashamed that all I could was to sob with her and did nothing much to console her. She's been losing sleep and is on sleeping pills but she knows Peter is watching her from above.