Nothing is for certain but death is guaranteed. In fact, there will be never a default possibility that this guarantee will fail. While I had many relatives who died of old age, the first time I get to know about the real meaning of death was from someone slightly younger than me.

We were in our first year university in the faculty of engineering in NUS. Unlike all other Singaporeans and PR male who had did our National Service, this friend was exempted from national service. The reason? He had leukemia. Despite the illness, he was determined to study hard and in fact was quite “kiasu” and always wanting to be the first in class. During the mid term exam, he did not turn out for our CAD-CAM practical examination. We than realized that he was hospitalized and when we finished our examination, he passed away. Till this day I cannot understand why he wanted to spent his last days with the rat-race together with other “rats.” As we had studied together for six months, his death had an impact on me. His death was the first death among my “peers.”

On another death I encountered was the death of another friend’s new born son. He died of congenital illness. I was not close to this baby but my friend and his wife were quite close to me.

Subsequently another death I come to know is my father in law. One Christmas morning, he fainted in church. After investigation, he was diagnosed with leukemia. After one year of struggle, he died. He was in his early sixties. As a caring Elder of the church, he had touched many lives. Many couldn’t come to terms why God took him away so early.

There was one year in which the first day of the year had two deaths. A church friend of mine (around late twenties or early thirties) was found dead in his study room by his wife. He was only married for one month. His wife must had been devastated many times over. I am not sure what did he died of but it was obvious it was not an expected death. On the same day, a church acquaintance’s wife committed suicide. That acquaintance was so devastated that he became visibility and extremely thin. Almost every year during anniversary I would see him putting up in the Straits Times obituary page his love for his wife. I feel so sad for him.

A couple of months ago, a friend in his late forties or early fifties died of a massive heart attack. It was an unexpected death although he had a family history of health disease. According to his wife, he had undergone preventive multiple stent and a full suite of medications. Nevertheless, he could not run away from life’s one and only certain guarantee. I had work with him in church work when we were in the Board of Elders and Deacons. One week before his death, he and together with others were playing the guitar during the church service.

If we all know that death is guarantee and will never default on us, how than should we live? As parents we teach our kids the importance of schooling and give them all the necessary resources to cope with school. Then when they grow up they enter the work force and start running together with other rats. Career, marriage, wealth accumulation and finally death. Death – whether sudden or expected will cause significant financial crisis. As a financial practitioner I can help others mitigate this crisis. But there isn’t much I can help others to really consider that when we die, we will not bring with us our wealth, career and even our loves one. If we are going to die tomorrow, how should we live? Perhaps when we can answer that question – we will know our priorities and thus not behave or do things the way we do now.

Today I visited the wake of my colleague. He had battled with a critical illness for a very long time already. Yesterday, he passed away at age 56. I had work with him on a few cases because he was the appointed company’s financial planning specialist. I had to trouble him a few times to vet and approve my financial plans when he was shuttling in between office and SGH for chemotherapy.