On October 22, I received the e-mail from my NTU (National Taiwan University) classmate 高華泰 informing us on the tragic accidental death of our beloved classmate 蕭逢郁.
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From: h.t.k.
To: 53 NTU Ch.E. Classmates
Date Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 9:39 AMDear Classmates,

With a heavy heart, I am sad to notify you that our beloved classmate 蕭逢郁 passed away yesterday morning (October 20, 2009) when he was tragically hit by a van while returning from a bicycle trip. None of us could have prepared for this, and we all miss him dearly. I will keep you posted and report to you the funeral arrangements as soon as more details become known.

Sincerely,

華泰 (Hua-Tie Kau)

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I was in shock and disbelieve when receiving this news. The memory of Mr. Shiao (蕭逢郁) was still fresh that he met our classmate at Hwalian and gave us a banquet last November during our 40-years class reunion. Though I don’t know him very deep because our class size of ~75, I remember that he was tall and very good in basketball.

On October 28, I went with 11 of our classmate to Hwalian to attend his funeral. We departed at 8:30 in the morning boarding Train #1000. We did not seat all together because we don’t have enough people to purchase group tickets. Along the trip, I took some pictures.

We arrived at the funeral site around 11:30 a.m. and waited our turn to give our public grieving to see him off the last time. Dr. Tseng represented us to read a very emotional eulogy. After the funeral, we went with his family to the cremation site to watch his body cremated. Then, we went to rest at a hotel restaurant. After approximately 2 hours waiting, we came back to the cremation site and went with the family to place his remains in the funeral tower. The funeral tower is located at a remote mountain site that has beautiful views of the city and harbor.

On our way back to Taipei, we stopped at a restaurant in front of the train station. The fresh fish soup dinner was a famous dish from Tainan city. We board the train around 7:00 p.m. and arrived at Taipei around 9:00 p.m. to complete this trip. I was sad and felt the uncertainties of our short life.