Around 3:00 am last night, an amazing woman named Sheila quietly passed away at the Royal Colombian Hospital in New Westminster. She had been a regular member of my church for the past 5+ years and I would be lying if I said we were close. I admit that I looked within my hard drive for a photo with her or of her, and found nothing. To understand Sheila, I need give a little background on my church. We provide service for in two different languages: English and Cantonese. As a relatively young church, our English ministry is mainly made up from the kids of the members in the Cantonese service, making the median age around the 18-19 mark. Sheila was well into her 80’s, yet she came to the English service every week her body allowed her to. But she did much more than simply show up.
Every chance she got, she would bake goods for us. Baking is no big deal, my mom does it some times, but baking for 50 + people is no easy task, especially since she would make cookies (healthy ones), tarts, rolls, and more. And there would always be leftovers. More importantly though, she was an example of somebody who went the whole nine yards for something she believed in, even though she must have felt alone in many different ways. Her faith was more than a passion or a hobby to her, it was her whole life.
As I mentioned earlier, we rarely spoke. But when I heard that her health had greatly deteriorated, I felt I should do something because secretly, her will and spirit moved me a little. I found out through Google that Royal Colombian provided wireless internet through Fatport: a pay as you go internet service and my mind quickly spun a few rainbow circles. I quickly gathered around 20 people to meet in one area while I went and hooked up my trustworthy Macbook at the hospital so that more people could say some words of encouragement or perhaps sing a song. At the time, I thought it was a brilliant idea since a hospital room can only fit so many people.
However when I got there, I was surprised to find out that Fatport only provided Wi-Fi in a tiny 5 by 5 waiting area of the hospital, nowhere near where Sheila stayed. Very much frustrated, I decided to use the speaker phone of my iPhone instead, only to find that the volume was much too poor. What we ended up using was an old Samsung flip phone, with barely any features except a dedicated speaker phone.
Technology failed me that day, but if anything, Sheila’s last phone call taught me a very big lesson. As a tech freak, I spend a lot of time fantasizing about the latest phones or jabbering on Twitter about whether Macs or PC’s are the way to go (Macs). Admittedly, I neglect my friends and family at times and even when I see them, my favourite topics always seem to revolve around Steve Job’s latest sneeze or the latest iFart app. I have forgotten that at the end of the day, technology’s purpose is just to serve people. Technology may be my passion, but it’s not meant to be my life. So if you’re like me, I highly encourage you to shut down your computer (not just close it) for a couple of hours every week and just spend it creating meaningful moments. Find the ‘Sheila’s’ in your life, listen, be inspired, and don’t forget to take lots of pictures. You can blog about it after if you wish.
Sheila must have had many amazing stories and I regret not hearing any of them. Sheila, if you’re on broadband internet in heaven and reading this, I only have one question: “is God a chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin type of guy?”
I apologize for the lack of any images in this post.
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Today, on Twitter I asked my fellow twitterati this question: “Have you told your family to join and follow you on twitter?” and the results were generally “no” or “they don’t care to”. I wasn’t surprised, because my own answer would have been a solid “hell no” as well. Social networks are our space to share stories with only our friends, and perhaps the odd relative, but stories about where you actually went last Saturday? Not really family dinner table conversation.