A few weeks ago a young man working as an English teacher in Seoul was left badly burnt by a fire that broke out in his apartment. Seventy percent of his body was covered with third degree burns. His girlfriend died in the fire. He died a week later despite the best efforts of the local hospital. Their apartment did not have a smoke alarm or a second fire escape. What makes this story even more sad is that this English teacher did not have medical insurance. He was working part time and thus did not apply for the Korean medical insurance. His hospital bills are upwards of $60,000.
Hearing the tragic story of William Kapoun and his girlfriend has really hit me. This could have been me. It could have been one of my friends. Up until this past Tuesday Jeff and I did not have a smoke detector in our apartment. There are no sprinklers in our ceiling, and there are bars on all our windows. We have one fire escape - the front door. This is the case of many buildings in Seoul (and I would imagine Korea). After the Korean war houses were built quickly in order to accommodate the large number of people without housing. Fire escapes were not really considered. This deep tragedy has caused the foreign community in Seoul to examine their own living situations and to look into getting a smoke alarm and medical insurance. It has also pulled the community together as people have donated thousands of dollars to help Bill's family pay for the hospital bills.
It's hard to lose someone unexpectedly. Especially someone so young, and with so much of their life ahead of them. In his writings Bill said: "I believe hope is a fundamental aspect of humanity; perhaps to lose hope, is to lose ones humanity." How true, yet how difficult for his family and friends to not lose hope in such a difficult situation.
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Another story that has crossed my "desk" these days is that of Randy Pausch. My brother-in-law sent Jeff and I a clip from a recent Oprah show that had Randy Paush delivering a bit of his last lecture. Randy is a 46 year old man from the US who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and has a few months to live. He gave his Last Lecture at the university where he teaches. He didn't talk about death, or about his family... he talked about fulfilling his childhood dreams and about the importance of dreaming. His story is so touching - a man, knowing that he is going to die, and yet still trying to live his life to the fullest. He seems to have fire in his belly - something driving him to keep going instead of just giving up. It's really inspirational, I hope that if I were ever in that situation that I would react in the same way.
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