How often do you think about/look back at the past ?

[Arctic]

I heard of this story once.  I was in a hostel in Japan when I meant this old lady so of cos we tcss cos both of us were free.  She was managing the hostel but there were very few people around.

Many many years ago, she fell in love with a German. This was like 1960s or something.  They pledged to marry but he had to go back Germany for a while and he went back, promising to return soon and marry. 

But he went back and then the Berlin Wall came up.  Turned out he lived in east Germany so travel was forbidden and he never returned.

Those were the times before Facebook or internet and she didn't know his address so that's it.

She waited and waited but he never returned.  Life moved on.  She met someone else, got married and had kids and grandkids.  She started a hostel.

Then the Berlin Wall fell.  Then came internet and her grandkids taught her how to use it and one day she decided to search for that German guy and lo and behold, she actually found him cos he used his exact name on Facebook.  She reached out to him.

A few years before she met me, she flew over to Germany to meet him, accompanied by her husband.  But there, the husband left them alone as she talked with the German guy.  That was how she found out he lived in east Berlin and the Berlin Wall stopped his travel etc.

Talked for hours.  They finally hugged and shook hands and parted.  She told me she believed she would never see him again in this life cos both were almost 80 already.

I asked her if she ever thought of the day before the German returned to Germany and what if she told him not to return or delay by one week and maybe the Berlin Wall would have come up and he couldn't return and maybe he would just have married her in Japan

She answered "every fucking day"

She has a husband.  She has children and grandchildren.  She loves them dearly.  But she never forgot her first love

Very touching

I believe there are many of such cases out there. Missed opportunities and both parties somehow move on in life but still reminisc about the past

[Arctic]

i met a lot of hypocrites including a chio bu nurse at a clinic... she told my mum to believe in buddhism.

she is young (just older maybe 3-5 yrs than me at that time)

chio, married, boss is good and pay is relatively good or ok for sure. life is good for her. pop 2 kids out liao tell me marriage is just normal, no need to clamour for love or riches

like u get to fuck all the yandaos and all the riches and look pretty and sexy then got kids, experience all liao then tell u

actually being chio and rich and having kids and blah blah is nothing, it's boring. when u got every damn shit every damn person want in the whole damn world then tell u it's pointless

better to just believe in buddhism or christianity. while still donning make up

like the jack ma tell u being rich is nth when they have it all

Your last sentence sums it up

Can happen for us too in everyday life. Eg. Iirc you nv been to Jewel before. I have been to Jewel and I tell you actually Jewel is just like any other mall in sg.

[Arctic]

True. She might not have been happier but he was her first love.  And it's always a "what if".

I think it wasn't a case of she wanted more but she really loved him but of cos if she had married him, and they moved to Germany it might have been worse.

The fish that got away is always the most valuable