In late March 2003, I flew to Surabaya from Hong Kong and reached there by 8:30 p.m. Mr. Guo, a local Chinese friend of mine fetched me from the airport and brought me to a restaurant for dinner. Just after he had sat down, his phoned rang. He told me that a friend of his would be coming soon. About 10 minutes later, a man about sixty years old came. He walked up to me and shook hand with me. He was wearing a tight jean and a pair of casual shoes. He walked with strong strides. By then, I remembered that he was Mr. Lu who was once an Indonesian military doctor. Mr. Guo asked me to guess Mr. Lu’s age to which Mr. Lu said laughingly “Don’t talk about age. I never remember my age. I only know that I came to this world in 1930.” He sat down and asked for two bottles of beer without taking food on the table. As he was drinking beer, he told us his philosophy for life. I asked him, being an elderly person how he would look at life. Without any hesitation he answered, “As long as you are alive, just live it to the fullest. Only when we are alive can we enjoy the wonderful life the world has offerred.”
The next day, I gave a health talk to the local Chinese community. After my talk, an old couple went on stage and spoke. They talked in Indonesian which I did not understand. During their ten minutes speech, some time they were very excited and some time they talked in a low voice and as if they were going to weep. Mrs. Guo, a teacher, told me that they were talking about the experience they went through in their prostate cancer treatment. Two years ago, Mr. Lu, the husband was found to have prostate cancer with pelvic and bone metastases. He went for consultation in a hospital in Singapore. The doctor told them that there was not much he could do for him and asked him to go back to spend his remaining time at home. At that time his PSA was 1200U. The doctor told the couple bluntly that Mr. Lu had another three more months of life and asked him to go back quickly to deal with his business issues. He had spent USD200,000 and in return the doctor told them those highly demoralizing words. After being advised by my friend, Mr. Lu came to our hospital and for the same amount of USD200,000 Mr. Lu survived and he did not have any more discomfort. His PSA dropped to 0.76U. That evening Mr. and Mrs. Lu were invited to the dinner hosted by Mr. Guo for me. I asked Mr. Lu whether he was still working. He answered in not so fluent Mandarin, “We, Overseas Chinese, never retire. Since I survive, I want to continue living a good life.”