I Swear You Will Be Fine

Dear Josh,

Jess and I are about to go on a short holiday. I was thinking about our last holiday together. When we both went to Perth. For yet another WWE event. It would be your last holiday, though a few days before you passed, you did say to me that Perth didn’t count as a holiday. I was annoyed but held my tongue.

As usual, finding the hotel was a grueling task. After your very first success at being in the same hotel as the WWE superstars, it became a hope for you to be in the same hotel as them. Unfortunately, we got it wrong in Perth. Within hours however, you figured out which hotel they were in. We landed late at night but you wanted to scout around their hotel. So we took an Uber there. I remember walking around the hotel and waiting around a bit, another thing you loved to do. We then got McDonalds and headed back to our hotel. Correction. I got McDonalds. Your diet then was stricter than ever.

The next morning, we went back to their hotel, on the pretense of having breakfast there, and hoping to “run” into them. You spent most of the day hanging out near the hotel, collecting autographs from the various superstars who would entertain the fans. I spent most of the day shopping! We had Nando’s for dinner, one of the few meals you allowed yourself to have.

I recall when you joined me shopping for awhile, we ran into one of the superstars- Seth Rollins I think. Usually shy, I was surprised you walked right up to him and struck up a conversation. I also remember explicitly one of the things you said, “you saved my life multiple times”. I didn’t like hearing that, but was happy to see how thrilled you were to get another autograph. You were also a little annoyed that I didn’t click a photograph.

The main event was the following day. It was about a 1km walk from our hotel. I remember it was wet and raining. You had hardly eaten. And as part of the VIP seat you bought, you also got to take home a WWE chair. I was watching part of the event from the hotel room. I could hear the fireworks. It really was a big event. At some point, you were seen on TV as well, while waiting for the wrestlers to come in.

You came back to the hotel ecstatic, despite having to carry the chair through the mud and rain. And despite having not eaten most of the day. It was so nice to see you so happy.

We had brought brown paper and string from Singapore to pack the chair. On our return to Singapore, it was the first time in my life that I was stopped at customs. They wanted to know what the weird “brown package” was…..

The chair comes out occasionally now. When we have a few more guests at dinner. It is a nice memory I have of you.

Love Mum