I've written 'Goodbye, Sam' months ago for the literary folio of my university. It is a story of one brother who struggled hard to keep a promise to a younger sibling. What makes me write about it today is because that story also touches on the cruelty of cancer and how it separates people, loving people, from each other.

I believe that all love stories have an ending. I've written it before that "happily ever after" can only be found in books. Soul mates or whatever they call two people who love each other too much these days can really never stay together until the end, physically that is though. I believe that somewhere along the way as two people make memories, something, someone or a divine intervention (if you can call it that) would come in the way stopping what would have been a happy ever after.

Yes. It may sound cruel but it's the reality of things.

Take my friends, Payang and Blesie's case.

They met in college. They fell in love. They fought hard - hunger, persecutions by friends and family and thousand more other trials. Those problems they face like bubbles on a dry summer day - meaning, the problems never really last. They end up marrying each other. They have a child, a beautiful girl they nicknamed "Cloney." Their story is a beautiful love story - one that, for me, deserves a happy ending.

But life happens. Something came in the way stopping them. Ble passed away a week or so ago. He fought cancer. Knowing Ble for some time, I know that he fought well. I know he struggled to keep his life, battled with whatever strength he has left, all for a lovely wife who adores him more than anyone and for a child he wanted so badly to see grow.

But he didn't make it. I don't know what it was like to be beside him as his life drains away from him. I know in his bed, as he tried to smile to comfort a worried wife, he has been asking the Big Guy in heaven "Why him?" And I know more than the pain he bears, he was more worried for the family he would leave behind - a young wife who would lose a husband and a daughter who wouldn't have a father. And Ble knows that they didn't deserve that.

What follows is an excerpt of Payang's letter to the malevolent Mr. Cancer. It is heart-wrenching but I like it best when she said: "Now my loving husband is dead...You might have been the reason of his early death but, you failed to change our faith. His Faith in God will lead him to Everlasting Life. In the end, Blesie is still the winner. The grandeur of everlasting life still belongs to him."

People told Payang to hang in there or that there is a reason for everything. I'd like to tell her the same thing but I doubt that things will get better. All I know is that Payang's life will be like hell and the only thing that would keep her moving forward is her daughter.

I'm hoping that sometime in the future, Payang will be happy again -truly happy. But I doubt that too. For me, you can only love one person your whole lifetime. You can settle for the second best but "the one who got away" will always have the best part of you.

It would be a cliché but "hang in there Yang."
Despite my realistic and masochistic self, I still believe that there is in fact a reason for everything.
And I still believe you can be happy.
Maybe not as happy when Ble was around, but happy.
It will help you get by as you wait for the moment where you two will be reunited.
Some will call it stupidity or delusion, but just like you, I’d like to call it FAITH.