Last year I lost my favourite English teacher, Ms Unnlucky.

She was not my regular teacher at my regular middle school. Instead, she ran a language training centre, kind of a cram school. The centre, Little Dolphin, enjoys a good reputation among parents of school-age kids in town. Actually, it has been very famous. A lot of kids get sent to study English there in afterschool hours.

Ms Unnlucky was not only the boss of the training centre, but taught classes herself as well. She was my father’s good friend, so I was able to learn English in her class. We often spent time playing together after class. She loved laughing.

Successful as Ms Unnlucky was in her business, she was unlucky otherwise. One year her family went on a tour around the country. Her husband was the driver of the family car. One day the weather was freezing. The family car skidded off the icy highway into a ravine, killing both Ms Unnlucky’s parents. Her husband survived. So did Ms Unnlucky, with a disability, though. She could no longer walk normally after the accident. She had to be on crutches.

After she was released from hospital, Ms Unnlucky resumed teaching us. Despite what she had gone through, she still conducted her lessons very well. In class, she was a perfect picture of optimism and strength. The classroom ringing with peals of her signature laughter, we enjoyed her lessons none the less.

One day last year, Father broke the bad news. He said that Ms Unnlucky had perished at home of a stroke. She had been working very late into the wee small hours of the morning. Unluckily, Ms Unnlucky fell off her chair onto the floor, dead. When the ambulance arrived, no vital signs were detected in her.

The world is always as strange as that. One day it is running as boringly normally as any other day. Next day, it changes all of a sudden, and you are left with a totally different environment.

Ms Unnlucky is no longer there, but her optimism and her bravery against the odds will be my inspiration forever.