Eric Khoo's "Be With Me"

A very strange movie title; wasn't really attracted to the title until after i have finished the movie actually. Was dragged there by friends and found myself in the movie theatre without really knowing why.

Then the opening scene: "depressing" music was playing and a scene of a old and traditional provision shop of the 70's era came into our sight. I was thinking, "not another depressing show i hope?"

And so the story goes, bits and pieces of small stories comes inter-mingling together as a big one; all talking about the different kinds of love and how people handle them. Some chose despair, some chose escape. Yet amongst them a single story shone through them all.

The story of Theresa Chan.

A lady who lost her hearing as a little girl. Just when the world was slowly growing to accommodate her, she lost her sight as well, one eye following the other. And she was just a little girl. Imagine the pain and the suffering, not being able to hear or see. What would our world be?

My first instinct? Suicide.

Yet that was not what Theresa chose. She decided to face it all. She went through the long and arduous journey, a world without sight or hearing and overcome it all mostly by herself. She stays alone and she became a teacher for the blind. Brings me to tears when I was watching the movie, the thought of it was painful enough. I wonder how it must have been to go through it, and through many years.

She said she fell in love once and lost her only love whom she was supposed to get married to. He was blind and he developed nose cancer. So for the 30 over years of Christmas nights, Theresa’s tears would flow freely. Yet she feels the love strong and that life is a blessing. She was told of the hordes of people whom she had heard of being homeless and starving from hunger in the streets of India in the 1960s and she thought that her plight was nothing compared to these people who faces death. She thought that she had everything in the world.

It also came to mind that although she was blind and was to do without the many beautiful sights that everyone else had the chance to see, she felt that heaven was fair in that she was also spared the atrocities of life, by also not being able to see or hear them. “God works in mysterious ways”, that was what Theresa said.

So how about the old man who had lost his wife of many years? How about the girl who committed suicide because of a love who has deserted her? How about the man who grew up hiding from love that he was supposed to fight for? How about love that was seemingly unreciprocated from a man who has difficulty in relating to his father?

How about embracing love itself and accepting it for what it brings?

A Tribute to Miss Theresa Chan, who has bravely faced desolateness with determination and faith.