I think this is how Eddie likes us to remember him: happy, carefree, enjoy the Inca trail hike to Machu Picchu, and travel to various parts of the world. Son, love you miss you ... 

Another memorable trip - It was also around this time of the year. Eddie, Wilson and I flew to Venice. Sandi came 2 days later to join us. After a couple of days, we took the night train to Vienna where we spent another 3 days. From Vienna, we took the train to Prague. Andre came to join us from Copenhagen. We had 5 glorious days together and we also celebrated Sandi's birthday in our rental apartment. Then, Andre had to train back to Copenhagen for his graduate school and Sandi flew back to Calgary for work. After sending them off, the 3 of us continued on our happy journey to Salzburg, Austria for 1 week, then Southern France for a few more days befor flying back to Calgary.

Reminiscing the story of 4 cousins, after 32 years, from the eldest to the youngest: David, a 2 times Best Lawyers of the year, 2015 and 2018; Brian, a professor, Director of Global Engagement in the university; my Sandi, a 15 years web development veteran; my Eddie, a semiconductor engineer in the Silicon Valley from 2010 till his abhorring departure in 2016.

I can still remember David's anxious look, "Mom, was I as cute as he is when I was a baby, please, please, please say yes ...." 

Life is A helpless "River of no return"

If you listen you can hear it call.(Wailaree).

There is a river called the river of no return,

sometimes it's peaceful and sometimes wild and free.

Love is a traveller on the river of no return,

swept on forever to be lost in the stormy sea.(Wailaree).

I can hear the river call (no return, no return).

I can hear my boy/lover call,"come to me".

I lost my boy/love on the river,

and forever my heart will yearn.

Gone, gone forever,

down the river of no return.

Wailaree, wailaree.

You never return to me.

https://ca.search.yahoo.com/search?p=river+of+no+return+lyricc+youtube&fr=ipad

(This picture taken by me was originally posted by Fred on FB last year. Thank you Fred for this memorable picture. Happy Mother's Day Sis / and me!)

Cheering for the Flames in the enemy zone, San Jose Sharks.

"Eddie, I checked and you can hire a porter."

After the trip, he told me," we, me and a couple of others arrived at the destinations 2 hours ahead of the next group and No, we didn't hire any porters, we all carried our own stuff."

2012 just before Christmas, all 6 of us, Eddie and Asuka, Sandi and Andre, Wison and I had a small family gathering of 2 nights and 3 days in Banff. Eddie and Asuka went skiing, our first and last family trip!

According to Eddie FB, this is his favourite picture, a frame still picture of himself, watching people around him buzzing and hustling. Is this from me?

2nd anniversary, again, we, who love Eddie, and Eddie loved so much in return will gather together to remember our beloved boy in the Heart of the Silicon Valley, his favourite place on earth and with his favourite people.

I can never run out of words for my quiet, humble, modest, well-liked son … a Colorful Life, a Kid at Heart, a Carefree, Fearless, Adventurous, Enthusiastic Rock Climber, a Die Heart Calgary Flames Fan, a Zestful World Traveller, a Handsome, Innocent, Boyish looking Face, a Skillful Piano Player & Drummer, a Dedicated Semiconductor engineer, a Loving, Devoted Husband/ Son/ Brother/ Friend …. To remember him today, I hereby compiled a collection of all those good memories loaded in the photo gallery.

Two years ago, Eddie's friend made this video and posted it on his FB for his last birthday. I am sure this is how he would have spend his day - happy, friends, party, fun, fun,  fun. Thank you Liane and thank you to all your good friends who made his life so happy!

Eddie was a very happy boy and loved Christmas. To remember him, Asuka created this video. Thank you Asuka. This is very sweet and thoughtful. It makes me feel that I am spending my Christmas with Eddie, you, Sandi, Andre and Wilson.

Though my heart feels like an unbearable sinking meteorite in the night sky, to the pitch dark Unknown, these pictures of yours also make me smile again. A Spider-Man, a vivid adventurous climber who spent the nights in the cave / the ledge of a cliff, a wanderlust traveller, a successful kind hearted, loveable, innocent, handsome boy, a die heart Calgary Flames fan, a prolific hockey / Boulder climbers forums writer, an amateur but successful investor, a semiconductor engineer in the Silicon Valley, and a loving, caring husband / son / brother / friend. Love you and miss you.

It’s Stampede time again, time that Eddie loved and grew up with since he was a baby till he became an analog circuit design engineer in the Silicon Valley.

1985, 1st Stampede: Eddie was only 5 months old. Mom, Sandi, Eddie in a stroller and I went for the free Stampede breakfast in a shopping mall parking lot. There, we watched the marching band performance. When we left during the performance, Eddie went ballistic. We didn’t know why. My 6th senses told me to turn back to the performance. As soon as we were back there, Eddie calmed down, and happily continued to watch the band and enjoy the music. (I tried to find his 5 month old picture, but this 9 months old in the gallery is the closest I can get)

1980s-2000s: For many years, we went to see the annual Stampede parade, visited the Stampede ground, and checked around for free Stampede breakfast. Eddie loved it. 2013, he came home from US with Asuka and Asuka’s mom. We watched the parade, visited the Stampede ground and had free Stampede breakfast and had a great time. That’s our last Stampede with Eddie.

Junior High: As coaxed by his drum teacher, Eddie played drums in some performance/competition in Calgary Stampede. Eddie requested to have drum lesson in Junior High. With his background in piano, he was able to complete grade 9 Royal Conservatory of Music in both piano and drum. With the little pocket money he had, he purchased a used drum set which he really enjoyed playing in the basement at home.

Senior High: As soon as he reached the youth working age, Eddie worked for 2 summers as a parking attendant in the Calgary Stampede ground. The last summer before his university, he got a computer job in Petro-Canada. Also, for 2 hockey seasons, he worked for the Calgary Flames as an usher in the Scotia Bank Saddledome, home for the Calgary Flames which is also in the Stampede ground.

Eddie, Calgary Stampede brings me back so much memories of you …

1990 Hong Kong

About 25 years ago, both Sandi and Eddie attended Chinese School every Saturday afternoon during the school terms. One day, just before Mother's Day, they used their pocket money and bought me this dragon dance picture in a gift store in the Chinese Cultural Centre where they had their Saturday Chinese school. It's made of beans, some fabric and some unknown materials. It had been hanging on the wall since then. A few months ago, the hook for hanging fell off, the frame broke. This year, with Eddie gone, Sandi in Toronto, I am celebrating Mother's Day by mending this picture and hanging it up on the wall again. Sandi and Eddie, with Andre and Asuka, thank you for your unconditional love and support in the past years. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers I know. Treasure your children and appreciate them and be grateful that they are celebrating Mother's Day with you. I had been a very lucky mother for a loving son and a loving daughter for 30 years. I did not know how lucky I was till Eddie passed away last year. Hope there will not be any mother in this whole wide world has to go through what I went through and am still encountering all various emotions here and there on a daily basis. Farewell, my most beautiful boy till we meet again ...

A year ago today, the nightmare we entered finally found an end. It wasn't what we had hoped for but at least there was no more suffering and pain. Eddie was free to do whatever he wanted without any hindrance and as this year has gone by we have tried our best to remember the happy, kindhearted, carefree, mischievous person that he was and not be too mired down in tears.

To the constant stream of friends that came by from the climbing world for every night and day we spent in the hospital hoping and praying and worrying, we thank you. For your smiles, for your tears, for the memories you shared of Ed and the endless amount of support and food and the attempt to bring smiles in a tough moment. I don't know how we can ever stop thanking you.

I wanted to take a moment to talk about anti-NMDA that claimed Eddie's life in the end. Because of it's rarity there was one lab that was open two day a week to be able to test for it. It started with funny smells that Eddie was smelling (affecting the senses) which led to an incorrect diagnosis and continued on with seizures. Finally the right one came back. This is a disease which occurs when antibodies produced by the body's own immune system attack NMDA receptors in the brain. These receptors play a role in judgement, perception of reality, memory, human interaction, alongside unconscious activities such as breathing. Antibodies are part of every human's system, and in general they protect us. However with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis the antibodies attack the highest concentration of NMDA receptors which are located in the brain. This disease is often associated with a benign tumor found in the testes by men; for recovery early recognition and removal of the tumor is vital. There are many patients however where the tumor is too small to be found on a CT/MRI scan. Main symptoms can be found at this link: http://www.antinmdafoundation.org/the-illness/what-is-anti-nmda-receptor-encephalitis/

It's funny how if you asked me on the spot about memories to share, I'd draw a complete blank because he was always prevalent in my life even at a distance but they are fleeting moments. However, different moments and things during the day this past year trigger those memories from time to time. A ski trip reminds me of the yearly fall down the black diamond slope that Eddie would coax me on; how my soup skills all started when Eddie asked me to try making him chicken soup which was predictably a disaster to begin with; Eddie running up to me at my wedding asking me if his jacket smelled and I couldn't fathom what he was talking about; when he came by my house to help me take down the Christmas lights on a visit to Calgary; the phone call from the airport about missing his flight and the scramble to find sheets for our guest beds at 10PM on a weeknight... or the fact that I figured I didn't care how much money parking was at Calgary Airport; that the time spent talking with him on a layover was more important. I didn't realize then how important it would be and how that was the last time I would ever chat with him again. Sometimes you just never know.

He was just getting started on life. And it reminds me how precious life really is; you never quite know when the end will come. Mom, Dad and I all found our ways to honor him; for me, it was a sprawling back tattoo that started at Christmas and wrapped up at the beginning of Feburary with an amazing Calgary-based tattoo artist. I chose the theme of cherry blossoms and cranes. Cherry blossoms signify the beauty and fragility of life, and the cranes signify hope in Japanese culture. Between the climbing friends and our family we all finally folded 1,450 cranes and sent that into the sky with Eddie. I will never forget the journey of my tattoo as it was healing and cathartic; but like any other tattoo it was not lacking in pain, of which can only pale in comparison to what Eddie went through.

"Cause you never think that the last time is the last time. You think there will be more. You think you have forever, but you don't. " - Grey's Anatomy

Climb high, climb on... may you continue to chase your dreams in the sky. We love you and miss you and will see you again some day.

On March 13, almost 1 year after Eddie' s departure, we gathered together to remember Eddie and to thank all his friends for their support a year ago. There are 3 "things/ person" that matter to him the most - Asuka, friends and food. I think he enjoyed us remembering him in this special occasion. Love you, son!

Happy Half belated Birthday to me, and happy belated birthday to you. I hope that you have summited a lot of awesome climbs all over the world and continue to do so, and have met a lot of climbing greats in the seemingly few months since you crossed over.

There are so many random memories that pop up from time to time and while they are short in description they are beyond large in memory, feeling and laughter. I come across them spontaneously when I have a free moment and each memory differs from the rest. Like the nights we used to spend talking about your university drinking stories, your opinions on my abysmal choice of ex-boyfriends, sleepovers, plans to take over the world, girlfriend candidates for you and the list goes on and on.

Most importantly, each memory makes me laugh because it was that mischevious, amusing or funny. And I think that's what's most important in coming to terms with the past and being able to continue onwards knowing that your grin and your penchant with mischief is always just hovering over my shoulder.

"So let the light guide your way
Hold every memory as you go
And every road you take, will always lead you home

It's been a long day without you, my friend
And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
We've come a long way from where we began
Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
When I see you again" - See You Again, Wiz Kalifa

I think of you, love you and kiss you on a daily basis. Today, you would have been 32. I remember when you were home, you were always with calgaryplucks.com, your most favorite site. Two days after you were gone, there were close to 300 tributes in that site for you. Some wanted to go to your service, one even suggested to change the site to your user name. So I think it’s appropriate to post this site here today to celebrate your birthday:

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=153526

Also, this is your last post

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?p=5626076

Climbing is another of your favorite activity, and here’s the post I found that you spent so much time on:

http://www.supertopo.com/tr/Summer-climbing-in-the-California-Sierras/t12845n.html#comments

Here, I get to collect all my favorite memories of you. Love you forever!

(This picture was taken in Versaille,  2001, our first trip to Europe)

The first Christmas and New Year without you has gone by. Sandi and Andre gave me this Rosendhal Christmas tree picture frame for your picture. For the whole holiday season, I have been thinking all the Christmases and New Years we spent together. You used to like all these festive celebrations. You wanted to make the gingerbread house when you came home for Christmas. .Even in UA dorm, you were busy with the final exam, you still decorated your room with a Christmas tree. We always huddled, cuddled and snuggled in bed and watched the count down then the rose bowl parade the next morning. The last one was 2012, you and Asuka came home. You bought the ice wine. We played mahjong till the count down then we had ice wine. Those were one of my happiest days even it was in the midst of my cancer treatment. Eddie, I love you and I miss you. 2016 was a year of inconsolable pain and sorrow ...

7 months has gone by. For the last few days, I have been thinking of your gentle, soft, positive, accommodating characters. Of the past 30 years I had known you, you got mad only twice. The first time was you were a little boy and had a fight with Sandi. The second time was what Sandi told me that you were mad when she didn't know my conditions after my operation in 2012. I honestly think that it was a mixture of your frustration, helplessness, anxiety of not knowing and your love to me. Even the week before you were admitted into the hospital, from my research on anti-NMDA receptor encephalities, the victims lost their own selves and got very wild, angry, mean and monstrous like. (for a very good example see Susannah Cahalan “Brain on Fire”  http://www.susannahcahalan.com/the-book/description/ ) For you, you just got confused, anxious, insomnia and sensitive. According to your emails to your best friend,  Gautam forwarded to me, you even thought that it was a poetic and serendipitous moment for you to figure out emotions, life and relationships. After you had any of the above figured out, you thought that it was “epiphany”! This is how positive you were even others are negative, depressed and violent. I can only explain this by your overwhelmingly angelic nature. Then you woke up from your first coma, you were as gentle as a baby lamb, accepting everything even though you were eager for Asuka to stay overnight with you, you wanted our companionship all the time and wanted to go out to see the outside world. The day before you went into coma again, you couldn’t wait to go home when the doctor told you that they planned to release you on the next day. When you didn’t get any of those, you just accepted all unwillingly like a most obedient little boy. Then, you made big plans about doing tax on that weekend, having Asuka to drop you off at work and take the UBER home as you thought you should be able to get back to work soon. … Eddie, you were so sweet and so accepting. Again, the only way to explain this is your soft, accommodating, angelic characters. Then, you went into coma again. 14 days after that, the lab confirmed the devilish anti-NMDA disease. Another 7 days, you passed away peacefully in your coma. Eddie, you were so sweet, gentle and calm from the very beginning till the very end, just like an angel ….

This memorial site was supposed to post the slide show from your celebration of life in Sunnyvale, California and Calgary Alberta, but it is a power point and cannot be posted. Here is the link as promised:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_vt7aW6AlmIaWNGVWY2T0xuRnc

Thank you Sandi for putting this together in the midst of your craziness of travelling between Calgary and Silicon Valley XX times, of packing and moving from Calgary to Toronto, of arranging the 2 services for Eddie, and of mourning for our beloved Eddie's appalling departure …

All folded by Eddie's friends and family to wish him well while he was in the hospital.

6 months, son. Today, I like to remember your frugal character and your generosity to people around you. This virtue is so unique and rare in your generation, and this is what I am so proud of you the most.

We were lucky that we could provide all Eddie’s collage expenses comfortably. Yet, he still led a very frugal life but on the other hand, he was very generous to others, friends or no friends. The followings are just some of the prominent incidence that console my grievances.

2006-2007? Eddie had our car for work for his EE coop program and he had a gas credit card connected to our gas credit card account. We paid all the transactions when the statement arrived. One day, Eddie and I were in the car on the highway. It was hot in the car (I am quite intolerant to heat), so I turned the air/con on. Eddie said, “Mom, air/con burns a lot of gas. I am going to turn it off, speed up and open the ventilation wide for you.” Then he continued to explain how to drive, how to fill just ¾ full of the gas tank to save the gas consumption. How many young adult of his age would be that sensitive to what the parents need to pay, trivial or not trivial. Also, he was very environmental conscious.

I think Eddie was in his 2nd/3rd year, he was so happy to tell me that he found a source to order text books that cost less than 1/3 of the text books he would have to pay in the bookstore. These were the text books published for the 3rd world countries. Other than the look and the paper quality, the content was the same. It was a big saving for EE text books. And yes, we were paying all his text books and the saving was on us, not him.

2008, Thanksgiving, our first visit to Eddie after he went to California for his graduate study, Eddie did not have a car and he bought a used bike to commute. He was sick and had a fever just before we left. Without a car, we went to a very small, nearby, local grocery store to stock up some grocery for him. We wanted to buy his favorite Tropicana orange juice and some greens. He ran out of almost all groceries at that time, no juice, no vegetables. But Eddie didn’t want any, insisted they were too expensive even though we were paying for it. He said when he felt better, he would cycle to Safeway where the grocery was cheaper.

2010, a couple of months after his first job in National Semiconductor, he decided to buy a car. He told me that he planned to buy a used CIVIC Honda because the insurance was relatively cheap, it’s durable with low maintenance. Again how many young professional would buy a used car for cheap insurance and maintenance after he gets his real first job with a decent pay.

“It’s risky to get a used car!”

“Oh, I know a mechanic and he can give me some advice.”

“Who is he? How do you know him?”

“He works in the climbing gym. Mom, you will not like him when you look at him. He has lots of tattoos on him. But he is nice to me. I saved his butt once by lending him $2000.”

$2000 is a big chunk of money for a new graduate just started his first job. This is how generous, and trusting he was to people around him. This explains all his non-stop visitors, some more than once a day, in the CCU for those 4 agonizing weeks in the hospital. Even more than 7 hours after his death, after mid-night, after he got very cold, after we left ….. there were still a big group of his friends outside his room in the CCU waiting area.

2012, I asked Eddie: “So you don’t have any ipad?”

“It’s too expensive. I am waiting for Sandi (his sister) to upgrade her ipad, then I’ll buy it off from her.”

Then I got sick with cancer. With his good buddy working for Apple in Apple, Eddie bought me an employee discount ipad – my priceless possession now. It’s a symbol of Eddie’s frugality, generosity, and his love to me. Hope I can keep using it till the day I meet him again.

Yes, there are numerous incidence if I have to list them all. These are all my consolations to keep me going today. Love you, Eddie …

 Another month, son. The other day, one of my colleagues looked at your picture on my screen saver and said, “From the picture, you can tell he is not only beautiful outside, he is just as beautiful inside!” Yes, indeed, you were. All through your life, from birth till the very end your handsome boyish charm had stolen countless of hearts. When you were a baby, a little boy, your big, black, round eyes and your rosy cheeks captured all the attentions and admirations. In El Camino, there were tears among the nurses and I heard compliments like: oh, he is so young / oh, he is so handsome … And yet, in the last few months, looking at your pictures, digging through your emails to me, journals, FB, your climbing / hockey forums, your tributes, contemplating the past, you were even more beautiful inside.

A few days ago, I read a reply in Quora for someone wanted to go to the Silicon Valley to look for a high tech job. Advice: 95% of the recruiters won’t even look at applicants who need a visa to work in US. There is never a shortage of smart and highly educated scientists and engineers in that area. Thinking back, you got an internship with CISCO in 2009 on work visa just 1 year after the historical 2008 economic crisis and huge global stock market crash, also, the same year you moved down to California to further your study. When you got your dream job in National Semiconductors in the following year, the unemployment rate there was 14%? / 16%?? The fact that you had to compete with candidates from those top schools in the Bay area in such a difficult time and without any status to work in the country, but just with your humble master degree from a state u was bizarre. Last year, you started a job with a startup, again on H1B work visa. Ironically, in less than a year, this rare and barbaric disease, maybe less than 1 in millions that wiped you out completely and ripped my heart out mercilessly was even more bizarre. Even though you lived your life to the fullest in all aspects and had the best marriage one can ever think of for a short 1 year and 10 months, if I have a choice, I rather trade everything I have to have you being a simple, happy engineer in Canada and still be with me instead of your dramatic, full, rich life cut short without any warnings.

Eddie, I will cherish all these precious memories of yours. I will continue to live in your spirit of honesty, sincerity, kindness, modesty… but I will never believe in fairness and justice in life, those are all BS …. Tomorrow will be my first birthday without you. If I can see you in my dream, that will be my very happy birthday ever … miss you and you will live in my heart forever …

Two more days will be the 4th month, son! Around this time of the month, I have an urge to talk to you and to remember you. FB and your site are the only closest place I can talk to you now.

I think some of your FB friends remember this picture of yours taken at the beginning of this year in El Delfin, Rodeller, Spain. To me, it symbolizes your modest life: strong and healthy, your zestful personalities, your determination, hard work, striding for the impossible and the best. This picture was taken only 1 ½ month before the onset of that horrific, fatal storm, 2 1/2 months prior to your stunning departure, 6 months prior today. Back then, you had so much to live for: a promising dream job that you enjoyed the challenge and offered you endless golden opportunities; an intelligent, sweetest loving wife; a charismatic, cozy, unreachable home in the heart of the Silicon Valley; a bunch of great, caring and happy friends; a passion for climbing, hockey games ….. There were so many, many mountains and peaks that you planned to conquer …. Yes, you worked excruciating hard for over 10 years, over 1/3 of your life, always lived frugally, went through countless tough times and frustrations and yet none of these could damage nor even tarnish your angelic, innocent, sincere, gentle, positive, helpful, generous and cheerful spirit. Instead, you tried to enjoy every single moment with whatever you had … You were about to begin your Utopian world you deserved … Just overnight, for no reason, the sky fell, everything shattered and disintegrated … it’s absolutely senseless. I can never understand why! Life is an unspeakably tragic irony, cruel and unfair …. What a joke!

In grievances, we will continue to console by all the good memories of yours … Farewell, my most beautiful and precious boy, till we meet again ….

2007 Summer, Eddie was working for the Candian Airforce, Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment in Cold Lake, Alberta for his EE coop program in UA. At the end of the term, he was supposed to get the CF-18 ride. But because of his civilian status (other students were from the Royal Military University), they could not process his papers for the CF-18 ride in time. Instead, his colleagues reassembled the military helicopter, which was all taken apart at that moment just to give him a ride in the military vessel.  And then the helicopter was taken apart again.

2007 December, Christmas

We visited the resorts for the locals. Eddie was excited to find their local delicacies includes fried scorpions, snakes, turtles ... sold in the food stalls.

2007 Christmas

2 months, son. We celebrated your life in the Silicon Valley (March 26) and in Calgary (April 23). In both occasions, I shared your hockey game story and cracked up a big laugh. This is so typical of you. For this, for 2 months has gone by and for those who miss you and could not attend neither of the event, here is your story.

April 2007 (I think?), Eddie was having the final exam. at the university in Edmonton. Calgary Flames was in the playoff game for the Stanley Cup. Eddie needed a vehicle right after the exam to start his work term in Cold Lake Alberta for the Canadian Airforce base in Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment.

One morning, I took the car and drove to Edmonton to leave you the car, then I took the Red Arrow Bus to go back home in Calgary, a 3-4 hour bus ride. When I got home, tried to use my key to open the door. The door was opened. There, standing in front of me, with a great big innocent, boyish smile was ..... GUESS WHO?

"Hi, mom!"

"What?"

"Oh, after you left, I found a ticket in Kijiji. I am going back to Edmonton right after the game for tomorrow's morning exam ...... Oh, by the way, I saw your bus passing by ...."

I miss you, son ...

It's 1450 paper cranes, folded by Eddie's family and friends while he was in El Camino Hospital February - March 2016, hoping he would recover soon. These paper cranes, all symbolize love and friendship from people around him was cremated with him.

Eddie is a boy of principle, of integrity and righteousness even at a very young age.

Nothing can detour him from what he thinks is right no matter how adverse or treacherous the situation is.

2002, Eddie was working for the Calgary Stampede as a parking attendant. This was his second summer working on the same job. He picked that because for other positions was just only the 10 days during the Calgary Stampede, but for a parking attendant, he had to be there a few days before for the set up and a few days after for taking everything down.

One day, Wilson and I went to visit him. It was over 30 C, very, very hot. With the heat of the sun reflecting from the cement, the parking lot was like an oven. Plus he had the orange and yellow petrol vest on, Eddie got heat rash on both of his arms. I felt very bad about this.

That day, when he got home, I asked him to quit his job and I would pay him all the wages he would have got from his job. He declined and said he had an obligation to finish what he had signed up for.

Just before the end of his job, Grandpa Lau in Hong Kong passed away. I told him as the only grandson, he had a very important leading role in the Chinese burial ritual. I also told him that Hong Kong was unbearably hot, not only because of the heat, the humidity stick the heat to your skin, and this would not go away even at night to give you a good sleep. I asked him to decide to go or not to go. Without hesitation, he said, " I'll go." I really admire him for that. I wonder how many people would do that to a grandparent that he barely knows.

Eddie, I am very proud of you, proud to be your mother. Like Michael Jackson's song, Gone too soon. You are a comet, a rainbow, so bright and beautiful, but gone too soon. You will live in my heart forever.

Most people remember this song from the 80's as a faded, old memory that never goes away. It's an ear worm that won't leave your head for hours. 

But for me, Ed loved to sing this song. Not because he was enamored with it - what boy plays with Barbies? - but because he knew it got to me every single time. Not only had I no love for this song, Ed deliberately sang it off key about 3-4 times a day. He had no excuse either to be off key; he had a musical background. And he would cackle so merrily after he was done because he was so proud of himself for doing so. 

Thankfully, after a month, the charade got old, and he finally gave it up. Unfortunately it meant that I had all the lyrics memorized and could sing along to it as well... except instead of the melodic version, I'll always remember the off key version of it.

"I'm a Barbie Girl / In a Barbie World / Life is plastic / It's fantastic..."