Memorial Blog Post For My Family Pet Goldfish "Fat Lady"

Departed peacefully at 2345hours, 14 October 2008. Lived happily in our home aquarium from somewhere in 2004 to 2008. Fondly remembered as "Fat Lady" - the goldfish with the sunny personality.

This was "Fat Lady" at her prime when she was really fat and round three months ago. She was around inside our aquarium four years ago together with twelve other tiny goldfishes. All the rest left for Goldfish Heaven within the first couple of months but "Fat Lady" ate and ate and ate and managed to survive for respectable four full years in our home aquarium.

"Fat Lady" was absolutely the personality of the home aquarium with big, bulging eyes and a great affinity to human presence. She would look intently at anyone approaching the aquarium and would carefully observe what the human beings in my house were doing - be it brushing teeth, hanging out the clothes, cooking meals, etc. Over the past two years, she could even respond and came over whenever we signaled her to come closer for us to watch her. Her favorite past-times were to dive under the water fountain to do a somersault in the water and, of course, to eat as much as she could stomach.

Today evening, at 2140hours, after I finished dinner, I went over to the home aquarium inside our kitchen and saw "Fat Lady" bobbing quietly near the surface of the water. She was still breathing but I could tell from her expression that her time was near. So I called for my mother, who was the chief caretaker of the aquarium, and she brought along a chair to accompany "Fat Lady" during her final moments and switched on a radio playing some Buddhist scriptures (she is a Buddhist).

For the next ninety minutes, we spent time watching "Fat Lady" doing her final somersaults under the water fountain as she bobbed her way around. The other fishes in the aquarium seemed to be aware of her imminent departure and went over to nudge her occasionally. "Fat Lady" made use of the water currents from the fountain to make her way around to say her goodbyes to her fellow fishes, touching almost all the fishes in the aquarium and after her final farewells, she just froze in the water and departed.

Strangely, she never flipped over like the others who left before her so she was completely upright as if she was still alive and swimming. It was only when two of the most senior fishes in the aquarium actually went over to nudge her did we realized "Fat Lady" had departed to Goldfish Heaven. My mother put "Fat Lady's" mortal coil in a clear plastic bag alongside some fresh flowers and filled it up with water for her water coffin before sending her off.

I'll always miss her - for her sunny personality in the home aquarium and her incredible resolve to survive so well for four years, entertaining other fishes and my family with her somersaults and her big intently-looking eyes. *Waves Goodbye* ~~~