One March day last year was black on the calendar for my extended family.

That day, my uncle and aunt were having dinner at home when, out of the blue, my uncle fainted and collapsed onto the floor. My aunt, greatly alarmed, called the ambulance on the spot and had her husband rushed to Taihe Hospital without delay.

At the hospital my uncle was revived. The ensuing diagnosis, however, revealed that my uncle was suffering from cancer. It was terminal unfortunately and had already reached an advanced stage. The doc’s best bet was that my uncle would be lasting at most five or six months.

The news caught my family completely off guard. Tears trickled down my aunt’s face and my parents’ as they were discussing what to do next. At the family conference, it was tearfully decided that we were to keep my uncle in the dark about the truth, and to make his remaining days on earth as worthwhile as possible.

First, we took Uncle on a family tour of Qingdao, where he saw the ocean for the first time. The gentle sea wind caressing the face and the waves lapping against the rocks soothed him so much that he was completely at ease at the beach town. At the seaside, Uncle was laughing like a kid, wading the low tide.

Weeks after the Qingdao trip, my cousin and her boyfriend tied the knot to ensure that her dad witnessed their wedding happening. Even though no one told him the truth about his condition, my uncle seemed to sense it. At the wedding, he held her daughter’s hand tightly until he put it in the groom’s. When the ceremony was going on, my uncle cradled next to his heart all the while the family photo taken at the beach.

About 3 months after my cousin’s wedding party, my uncle fell. Grief stricken, we could not accept the fact and would not believe it. In denial for weeks as we were, one thing that consoled the clan was that my uncle went away with a sweet smile on the face.