Don’t wait! Too late!

Just a few days into 2015, my mom told me that my grandpa had passed away. I was sorrowful about this news and felt extremely guilty. I should have visited my grandpa in the summer of 2014, but I hadn’t. I told him that I would visit him in 2015. But I didn’t know that the 2014 summer would be the last chance for me to see him.

Back to the summer of 2014, I went back to China for a vacation. I only have two and a half weeks vacation time, and I was planning to visit my family in 3 different provinces initially. My home is in Guangdong; my grandma, who’s my father family and siblings, are in Hunan; and my grandpa-my mom’s family and siblings are in Jiangsu. I told my mom that I would visit my grandpa since I hadn’t visited him for a few years after I came to Canada.

However, my mom suggested visiting him the next time as I only had such a short stay in China.

“Is grandpa well?” I asked my mom.

“Yes, he is. He’s in good health except for his hearing. That’s normal for people of his age. Next year if you could apply for a few days more vacation you can visit him and stay with him a bit longer.” My mom said with confidence.

I thought it was a good idea as I agreed that my vacation was too short to visit him. I could stay longer with him the next year.

Then I waited. I made the plan to visit my grandpa in 2015.

But how could my grandpa pass away so soon? He would have been very glad to see me if I had visited him in 2014. But could I reverse the time machine and go back to 2014？I couldn’t!

After he had passed away, one day when I opened my computer and saw grandpa’s name and address in my online shopping account, I cried and felt regret about my decision for not visiting him earlier.

Every year, I had purchased some gifts for him on line and shipped them to his home. Every time he had received them, he was very glad that I always thought of him. He told his old friends what a wonderful granddaughter I was. I hoped I could still have the privilege and happiness to have him being proud of me for a lot more years. I still remember that when I was a child, I went to my grandparent’s home for dinner after school. After dinner, my grandpa always took out his glasses and started to read stories or poems to my cousin and me. I remember he touched my head with a loving and caring hand. “ Our little Yanzi (means swallow in Chinese), are you going to fly away from us when you grow up? Remember to come back to visit grandma and me often. Swallows always fly back home in spring…”

After I had grown up, I did move to another province for study and another further province to work and get married. When I think of my grandpa’s words, this swallow forgot to visit the hometown for a few years!

Today my grandpa’s address stands empty, and there’s not a grandpa to receive my gifts; I know that I should not have waited in 2014.

From then on, I told myself that I should not wait for the perfect time to make a delicate plan; lots of things will be missed if I keep waiting.

Several years ago I read a novel; it’s about a husband who just lost his wife. One day he saw one beautiful scarf sitting in the closet when he was checking his wife’s remnants.

It was such a beautiful and expensive scarf; his wife didn’t want to wear it, as she wanted to wait for the perfect occasion to show it off.

“Why don’t you wear it?” The husband had asked his wife, as she liked to take the scarf out of its beautiful box and put it on her neck, standing in front of a mirror and looking at herself several times.

“The scarf is too expensive. I will wait when I have a chance to attend an important party. At that time I will dress in my beautiful dress. The lovely scarf needs a cute dress and an important party.” His wife said merrily.

But that big party didn’t come; one day his wife became very sick from a disease.

“Do you want to wear your scarf now?” the husband asked the wife when she was very sick and lying in bed.

“No, I look horrible now. I will wait until I get better.” The wife answered.

Then she waited and waited, and she never got a chance to wear it.

When I was in university, one of my friends always said:” When I have money, I would like to travel to France, Germany, and Italy.” This summer I met him and asked him if he had visited those countries he had wished to visit when he was a student. He is a successful businessman and has lots of money now . He said not yet as he doesn’t have time as he is too busy with work.

There are so many things in life which are like that. We always have other priorities, although we have a big plan since it’s not at the top of our priorities list, we will choose to wait.

When I got married, my husband and I planned to go to travel to a few countries. But the plan was delayed. It’s been further delayed after my son was born and it has not been fulfilled yet, till today.

It’s also the same regarding children. I try to accompany my son as much as I can. One of my friends said that her husband was busy running a business and didn’t have time to accompany his son. “I need to make more money; then we can be financially worry free. I can accompany my son often when I become successful.” The husband always told his wife the vision.

But when the day came and he had the time and lots of money, he found that his son had already become very independent and didn’t need the father to accompany him anymore. The son said: “Dad , when I was a kid, I made lots of wishes before sleep that you could take me to park for a whole day on the weekend. But you were always busy with your work and didn’t have time. Now I am 16, and I don’t feel that wish matters anymore.”

This summer, I went to visit my grandma and stayed there for one week. On the day I left, my grandma told me to visit her again next year。

I will, grandma. I won’t skip any chance to visit you and let myself have regrets again.

So my advice is this – in your life, if you have a plan, make it happen! Don’t wait! You could miss your chance if you wait.

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