Not A Very Good Friday

Friday was really a non event for me. Year after year Good Friday had been the same for me. Guess the only real difference this year, was that I was partaking service in another church. I left my church last year, and had since joined Cal BP for the past 1.5 years. I sang in the choir today. Two different songs. In my opinion, it was quite average. Wasn't that fantastic. Our second song "O Love that will not let me go!" was not that easy to do. The choir did not spend too much time working out the details also. I guess it's partly my conductress' father who's critically ill with lung cancer. I see her quite distracted nowadays during practice.

That's not the highlight of the day though. I met up with Marcus after service at Tiong Bahru Market for supper. On the way, we notice an accident on the road . Not having a clear view of the situation, I asked Marcus whether he should be helping.. Before I can clearly analyse any "extra-ordinarily troubling" implications, he jumped out from my car and dashed over the the scene of the accident... "OOOOooo my hero!!" LOL. I parked my car quickly (and illegally) and quickened my steps towards the junction. Woh.. the man, in his late forties, was lying on his side in a pool of blood fresh emerging from his mouth and nose..He had visible scratches, cuts and bruises all over. Laying on his side in an odd angle, he must have broken a few things. There was a mangled bicycle some distance off. Judging from the situation, the taxi crashed into the front of it and sent the man flying.

I was a bit shaken at the sight. I've never seen so much blood before. Especially in an accident. But surprisingly, a few things really hit me. Quite a number of people came forward to help. There were people redirecting traffic, calling the police and ambulance, putting up the sign boards to block the victim from oncoming vehicles, someone brought a roll of toilet papers to clean up the man etc etc.. Marcus decided it was best not to move the body as it might aggravate the injuries.

We waited a good ten minutes before the ambulance arrived. Marcus gave his SOP medical report to the CDF Medics, and off they went. We proceeded on with our supper for the night. Nothing much we could have done for the poor man besides praying hard that he had escaped the death that night.

What really struck me was the amount of fear and panic in the taxi driver's voice when he called his friend. He broke into tears. I am sure nobody had wished for this horrible accident, but I cannot help imagining myself or my friends in any of the three situations ie. The person who caused the accident, the victim of the accident, or the relatives and friends for both two cases. It had been a traumatising night. But it was really quite an experience.

Semplice Simon