[Obit] Unable are the loved to die

She was reported missing prior to her death.

On 11 November 2022, her mother made a public plea for information.

The following day, more pleas for information about Ms Rachael Ang’s whereabouts.

Today, a family has lost their daughter, and many among us have lost a friend.

She was 27. She was only 27.

To be missing and found dead soon after in Singapore is almost unfathomable.

A perpetual sense of unresolved grief will permeate the consciousness of her family and friends.

We can only pray and hope that in her last moments, Rachael found comfort, solace and peace.

There are simply too many what-ifs and too many questions left unanswered.

A terse “Rachael has been found, but she has left us" would be a common message lighting up the phone of her worried-stricken family and friends on that fateful day.

This is the same message that leaves them relieved and devastated – a confluence of binary emotions.

We do not know the circumstances behind Rachael’s death, and there is no need on our part, strangers we are, to make any speculation. We urge anyone who is reading this to refrain from making any second guesses.

She was 27. Many of us would have a daughter like her – of a similar age with hope and aspirations for a better future. And in time to come, to care for her aging parents.

From whatever information we have that is in the public domain today, it was safe to say that Rachael was a filial and responsible daughter and friend.

Devastatingly, what Rachael’s mother and friends have are only her [last] messages, stored away in their respective phones.

In every one of our phones lies a WhatsApp group, a WhatsApp message. It can be a simple “ok”, a “see you”,  a “I’ll be home at 10pm later tonight”, a "love you mum", or a “Take care” message that we take for granted as we go about our respective lives.

But it could very well be the last that we leave for our loved ones - a thin fine line between a message and a memory.

To those who still can, please stay in touch, pick up the phone and make a call. Treasure each other’s company and schedule a meet-up, because we will never know whether it will be our last.

Please do not be too busy. Please. Sometimes, there is simply no second chance.

Because to the family and friends of Ms Ang Qi Ying, Rachael, staying in touch or meeting up for a meal is, today, a luxury, an act of love that will forever be met with a numbing and deafening silence.

Words are left unsaid, and deeds are left undone. There are only pieces of regret, scattered in the memories of Ms Ang's loved ones.

Her messages, which no longer light up their phones and lives, are the only pieces of memories that Rachael has so kindly left for her most beloved family and friends; messages that will be cherished for the rest of their mortal lives.

She will be fondly remembered. We, at Death Kopitiam Singapore, send our condolences to the family of Ms Ang Qi Ying, Rachael, and may she be at rest.

Some say, “time will heal all wounds”. We disagree because grief is the price of love. And it is this very love that will gift her family and friends the strength to hold her in perpetual remembrance.

Tomorrow will not be a better day, because a family has lost a beautiful presence.

Those we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch.

Death ends a life, the short, amazing, enriching and beautiful life of Ms Rachael Ang, but it does not end their loved ones’ relationship with her.

Unable are the loved to die.