Pretension’s eldest surviving relative, a maiden aunt on her mother’s side, passed away today. She was 96. The death comes at a particularly busy time for P as she is attending a large scale company conference with senior management next week and is due to fly off to (oh, irony) Melbourne for work immediately after.

Eldest Aunt went to Australia to study nursing when she was in her teens and continued working in Melbourne through the second world war and beyond. She never married although she reportedly had many suitors in her youth. P remembers her occasional visits to Singapore during P’s early childhood, often bearing gifts of Cadbury’s chocolates.

A plump, often irascible figure, who was well-known in her Ivanhoe neighbourhood – she often complained about aches, pains and ailments and was a bit of a hypochondriac. P caught it from her for accidentally unscrewing a doorknob during one visit to her home in the ‘80s.

Eldest Aunt was persuaded to return to Singapore by her sisters in her last years due to her increasing frailty and degenerating health. P was against this; she felt EA would have been happier in an Australian nursing home, since she had lived there all her life. P didn’t fight it tho’ and perhaps she should have as EA’s final years were not as happy as they could have been. She hated most local food, the hot and humid Singapore climate and became increasingly trapped in her small room as her mobility decreased. EA also missed her Australian friends, and though they corresponded regularly (by letter), this obviously did not substitute for the chats over the fence or at the shops. The couple of times P visited her in Singapore, EA was quite often in tears.

Eldest Aunt developed a stomach ulcer in October 2008 and was promptly dispatched to a local hospital by an officious sister. During the operation she contracted a respiratory virus which gradually escalated to Pneumonia. She has had several ups and downs since then and has been in and out of critical care. P last saw her just over ten days ago – it was one of her good days; she could sit up in her wheelchair and grunt responses to questions, but her once generous frame had collapsed in on itself like a bent sail.

Two days ago,  EA had another relapse and her lungs began to go. This afternoon, she was finally released from what had become an alien prison to her – RIP Eldest Aunt. P is only sorry she didn’t do more when you were alive.

Fear no more the heat o' the sun,

Nor the furious winter's rages;

Thou thy worldly task hast done,

Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages;

Golden lads and girls all must,

As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Shakespeare

This is British composer Gerald Finzi’s setting of that poem.