I was shocked by the news as she was an avid hiker and had always showed her utmost respect for mother nature. And she was so young, she was only 42. "How could this had happened to her?", I asked. My 2nd sister had posted news feed about our cousin's tragedy and it donned to me, it was the snow. The snow was her final nemesis. While she was an experienced hiker, snow changed the game. I was sad but I shed no tears. I tried but I just could not shed a tear for her.
She left us a week before our grandmother's birthday celebration and a cousin's wedding and a fortnight before Chinese New Year. There is never a good time to die. She truly made it difficult for her parents to break the news to grandma. No one can picture how grandma will take the news. She is over 90 and the news would probably stricken her. If she were to be informed about my cousin's demise, I imagined she would cancel her birthday celebration altogether. There will be no birthday nor Chinese New Year celebration this year. At first, the collective decision was to postpone the news until after Chinese New Year and the latest instruction to the family is to hide the news from her for as long as possible.
We spend many Chinese New Year holidays at grandma's house. When I was little, I always look forward for this time of the year. Besides the red packets from aunts and uncles, I look forward to play with my cousins. Alix was the ring leader. She bore the brunt of the mischief created by us cousins since she was also the oldest in the pack. She made the best Maggie Mi curry flavored noodle. She had her own twist in cooking the noodle. Instead of waiting for the water to boil then put in the noodle, she lets the noodle and water boil together. Then she waited patiently for the noodle to cook to perfection. That year, we had supper for most nights at grandma's. She will be remembered as someone who loved to eat and knew the best places to eat in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.
She had freckles all over her face. As asian, flawless skin is preferred over freckles. I recalled my mother telling my sister and I that we are fortunate to be born with flawless skin unlike our dear cousin.I did not know what it meant then. I don't know if her freckles bothered her. She also did not have a slim built and I don't know if that bothered her either. She did not fit into the convention wisdom for physical beauty. We never talked about beauty regimens nor do we talked about relationships.
I had fond memories of my one and only waterfall trekking trip with her. Over a weekend, we went on unpaved roads, we needed a GPS to get to our destination, we slept in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mosquitoes and we showered in the river. We hiked along side a cascade of waterfalls. The water was pristine and the air was fresh. We were far away from civilization. It was an awesome short getaway. I remembered it was raining then, I had my hiking shoes and a waterproof jacket like a proper Californian hiker while she hiked with her sandals and an umbrella. She resembled a plain simple kampung girl. She knew her way around the slippery boulders. I had a magnificent time. Since she was a food connoisseur, the first thing we did when we got back to the city was to fill our appetite at a local restaurant before heading home.
When I want to remember her, I will always go back to the image of her in a t-shirt, shorts and sandals holding her umbrella as she walked in the rain from one boulder to another.
