Forever in our hearts and memory ...

The dead never really leave us - physically, yes. They are no longer with us. Emotionally - we are still attach to them.  We still think of them with sadness, happiness, longing .... they still live in our hearts. We never really let them go. Every race whether as a religious celebration or culture - they celebrated a day for remembering and honouring the dead. The Christians have their All Souls' Day, the Buddhists have their Cheng Beng festival. The Hindus have them too. As for Muslims, it is always a must, if not an obligation, to visit the dead on the eve of Hari Raya Puasa.

As for me, I never wait for any festival. I visit my dead parents' graves whenever I have the opportunity or when I am back in Melaka. Moreover, I love the Peringgit cemetery, situated at my old hometown. I went there the last weekend I went back to Melaka early morning about 7:00am. It was very cooling, refreshing and of course, tranquil. Quiet and serene with a dignity and "life" of its own. I sat among the many tombstones reciting Al-Fatihah for all the departed souls. I sat between my parents' graves and recited the surah Yaasin for them. Then, I slowly and quietly pulled out the weeds and just talked to them. The far away voices from Masjid Al-Azim filtered through the quiet cemetery. In the silence of a Sunday morning, being a weekend, I felt belong and "home" among them. It set me wondering where I would end up one day. It is said that we would end up where our earth was taken from. The last rites were - from dust to dust ... from earth we come, to earth we return ....  hmmm ... food for thought  :-}

Mak, on the left and Bapak. 

Thank you ....

The satisfaction of making an old friend happy. I guess only those who have gone through it will fully appreciate and understand it. Muna lost her handphone. Thus, she lost my contact number. As it was Allah's will, we still got to meet with each other.

Shah came back to Melaka the night before her daughter's wedding. Since he lived in her area and he knew that she was my friend, he asked if I was invited to her daughter's wedding. Of course I was surprised! I called her immediately but nothing was easy. Nobody picked up the phone. It had a ringing tone but nobody answered it. Thus, after  several tries, I called her house fixed number. Finally, I got to talk to her. Of course there were a lot of screaming and accusing of forgetting old friends .... she apologised and invited me to come over. InsyaAllah, I said. she wanted me to come and meet her eldest daughter whom she claimed was an exact replica of me. Seriously ??? Not in physical terms but in her mannerisms, her thinking, style of speaking out her thoughts and opinions ... hmmm... this sounded interesting.

I did not even ask Noor if he could go. I just told him we were going, whether he agreed or not. As usual, he would try to indulge my whims and fancies where my friends were concerned. So, that Sunday, we went to Muar from Melaka. We managed to find her house. She was, of course, busy as it was her daughter's wedding. We were noisy as ever. It was just wonderfully satisfying to hold each other and hug each other tight before we let go of each other as she had to greet other guests. It was not a time for us. I had to share her with the wedding reception's guests.

She thus, introduced me to Hijrah, her first daughter. She is 26 years old. A TESL teacher graduate from New Zealand. She spoke impeccable, fluent English even though both her parents were Malay educated. Muna, being my housemate in college and also a "permanent resident" of my room, learned to speak English due to mixing and conversing with me as I spoke English most of the time. She was a fast learner hence, she polished her language. Hijrah and I got along like a house on fire. It was as if we had always known each other. The age gap of almost 26 years made no difference when we were arguing our points, discussing our points of views on anything and everything. In between greeting her guests and many relatives, she managed to find time and sit at our table. The hour I was there was fulfilling, fun and enjoyable intellectual exchange. I made a friend in my close friend's daughter.

My gratitude and appreciation to Noor, who made it possible for us to meet. Alhamdulillah. For his patience and tolerance in indulging my request. For his understanding how important these people were in my life. Even though he had other errands to attend to, he put everything on hold for a couple of precious hours with my friends. I did not ask for much. I needed him to drive me as I was hopeless in my sense of direction. At least he also enjoyed them and of course, the food.  :-)))

Why wait?

Noor and I went back to Melaka for some wedding obligations of family and close friend. We arrived Melaka on Friday early morning so that we had an extra day before the obligations started. We decided to visit my family when he lamented about some close friends. Thus, I told him "Why wait? Just go and visit them now. For all you know, we may never get the chance to meet up with them. We don't know what tomorrow brings but we have today. We have now."  So, he turned the car to visit a friend at Kerubung whose husband had just had two toes amputated due to diabetes. We last met her I think three years ago.

After that, we went to another friend's house near Air Molek whose mother passed away last month. We knew her mother quite well. So, it was not only an obligatory visit but a fulfilled wish to meet up and express our condolences personally. I could just held her close and tight for a long moment. Without saying a word, she understood how I felt for her loss. She is the only child and her mother was her whole life. At least she has a husband who is also a friend. :-)

Today we fulfilled a wedding obligation of Noor's cousin. It was my old friends' house. I got to meet up with Mail. We had not met for almost what ... 10 years? His brother, Kamal, was my classmate at night class. He had gone totally blind. We do not know how much time we have together. When he heard my voice and recognised Noor, he asked about another old friend. We got to meet Abang Hashim, Halim and Ahmad, their brothers. We spent almost two hours there as Noor met up with some of his other relatives.

Later, we proceeded to the late Zali's family house. He was also related to Noor. He passed away last month but we could not go back to pay our last respects. Thus, we met his parents and paid a courtesy call to pay our last respects personally.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Muar before going to KL. This is also to fulfill a wedding invitation of my ex-housemate in teacher training college. Her daughter is getting married. We were and are very close. I hope to meet up with some ex-college colleagues who are invited to the wedding reception. Those living around JB and Muar. InsyaAllah, this wish will also be fulfilled.

Grandmothers ... US ???

Anis Nadhirah

Grandmothers. Us? Seriously? This is our second grand daughter from Ain and Redwan, Kak Ti's daughter. We have this bonding where it is our grand daughter. Our children. Everybody belongs to everybody. Thus, the complete acceptance. She is now almost 3 weeks old and I still have not gone home to visit and welcome her.

Kakak - Aina Mardhiah

They are adorable aren't they? We have 2 mothers. From my mother's side, these are her 2 great grand children. From Kak Leha (my half sister) we have 6 grand children, the eldest being 17 years old and the youngest is a year plus. Yet, we are close and accept each other. Hence, when they called us Nek we thought they were referring to somebody else !!!  :-DD)))  Maybe we think we are still too young to be referred as such. Even they get confuse and call my boys Abang instead of
Pak Cik. 

Nadia and Adi, Kak Haj's daughter, have no children yet although they were the first niece to get married from my mother's side. She had two miscarriages in Australia. It's been five years now but maybe Allah has something better for them. InsyaAllah. Now that she is back in Malaysia, completed her doctorate and more settled in her routine, who knows? We may be blessed with more grand children !!! As for now, thank you Ain, for regularly updating your facebook with the photos of these two lovely grand daughters. :-))