'Don't you dare die': Novelist tells his story of a new beginning
04 May 2009 05:54
Kristen Thompson/Metro Vancouver
Vancouver-born novelist Wayson Choy outside Christ Church Cathedral on Burrard Street Sunday.
“Wayson, don’t you dare die” — five words
that, along with medical treatment, might have helped save
Vancouver-born novelist Wayson Choy’s life.
The award-winning Toronto-based writer is
back home this week to promote his new memoir Not Yet, a story
of surviving two near-fatal heart attacks and living to tell the
tale.
Choy said he received the best medical
treatment available while in hospital, but it was the love of
his friends and family – who insisted on being with him even
when hospital staff said no – that pulled him out of the
“darkness.”
“There was a time when I was so exhausted
that I thought, ‘I’ll just let go,’ ” Choy said, adding that
just as he accepted death he heard a woman’s voice say, “Wayson,
don’t you dare die.”
“I was so startled it pulled me back and I
thought, ‘I want to see what happens next … Let’s stick with
life for a bit.’ ”
While none of his friends have admitted to
speaking those words aloud, Choy said he hasn’t ruled out the
possibility that he heard someone’s prayers penetrating his
subconscious.
And it was that act of love and kindness, he
said, that made him want to live.
“It takes courage to be with somebody (who is
dying). (If you’re sick), you don’t actually live it as vividly
as those who visit you and have to go away and worry if you’ll
be there the next day,” Choy said.
“When people say they are bored with life I
think, ‘How could you be?’ …I’m near the end of my life, and yet
it’s off to a wonderful beginning. I can’t believe I’m 70 and
I’m still (learning) so much … and want to know more.”
He said living life for heaven – if there is
one – isn’t as rewarding as living for the moment.
“Isn’t this miracle enough?” Choy asked. “If
all we have is now, then it’s even more important to be awake …
And if there’s more, I’m willing to be surprised.”
Metro Vancouver