Year 2022
Year 2021
Year 2019
Year 2018
Year 2017
Year 2016
Year 2015
Year 2014
Year 2013
Year 2012
Year 2011
Year 2010
Year 2009
Year 2008

MAY 2013

Winnie: An April Fools' without jokes

By Winnie Chen Lee Yee

Bachelor of Communication (Hons) Public Relations

March 2011

 

Every April Fools' Day had been just another day until that of 2003.  I can still readily recall that day as if it is a fresh memory despite it was more than 3,650 days ago.

As I would usually do, I turned on the radio as I got into my mother's car after the Chemistry tuition class that night.  There it was; a piece of breaking news that shocked me and I burst into tears of disbelieve.  Leslie Cheung, one of my all-time favourite Hong Kong superstars, was found dead.  Upon reaching home, the first thing I did was turning on the TV and then hoping to find out that it was just another April Fools' joke.  But no, instead I watched my saddest news that night.

Leslie leapt from the 24^th floor of Hong Kong Mandarin Oriental Hotel after leaving behind a suicide note.  A day after his death, his family confirmed that he had been suffering from depression and had received psychiatric treatment for almost a year.   The sudden fall to the superstar's death emotionally affected the whole Chinese community worldwide, especially when it aggravated the sorrows caused by one of history's most serious fatal viral outbreaks, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), happening at that time.

Since then, April Fools' Day has a new meaning to me.  It reminds me to appreciate life and to show love to people around us.  Diseases often come without any signs while what we can do about it is often limited.  Doctors usually play the most important roles in a patient's recovery.  However, for depression and psychiatric illnesses, the patient himself holds the key to his own recovery.  Psychiatric illnesses may sound fearsome especially when we have little knowledge about it, but if you take a second look, it is just a sickness of which the patient can cure himself.  Why should we be afraid of what we can control?

People often hope that life is a bed of roses.  And we tend to forget that roses come with thorns.  Similarly, isn't it impossible to have light and not the shadows?  Always remind yourself and others that life can only be perfected when there are imperfections.  Do not let failures scare you.  Hold fast to faith while you overcome what appears to be fated.  Beware that today remains a mystery before tomorrow ends it.  Grab opportunities as long as you still have a single breath left.

Today, April Fools' still reminds me of Leslie and the lessons his life has taught me.  Life is so strong and yet can be so fragile.  We can make the best preparation to welcome a new born, but we may never tell when a life will leave us.   It is important to live a life the way we will never regret and to love everyone around us all the time.