EMAK

Yesterday was Mak's 56th Birthday. We didn't celebrate because she didn't want to. Maybe because this will be the 2nd time she celebrated her birthday without Abah. Sometimes, I sense her loneliness and I feel sad because there are times when I just cannot be there for her. As a wife and mother, I now have a family of my own to look after.

Although I miss Abah too but I am usually so busy with every day affairs, working, looking after the children et cetera, et cetera that I have no time to even think. Maybe that's why Mak does not want to retire so soon. She still wants to teach, the first and only profession that she love. She could not think of doing anything else except teaching.

Mak came from a very poor family. In the 1950s when many Malay family lived in big, spacious kampong houses, Mak lived in the slum areas at Waterloo Street with her parents and 6 siblings. Mak used to tell us that her house was only a makeshift hut. The soil on the ground was their floor. But Tok was (and still is, even though he is already 81 years old) a very innovative man. He made taps for his family so that there was no need for his daughters to use the common bathroom to bath or wash the clothes. With his measly income of maybe $10 per month and Nenek's work as a washer woman and selling goreng pisang, they managed to make a decent flooring for their house by the time Mak became a teenager.

Mak once told us that her family could not afford fresh food. They bought food that maybe no one wanted at very cheap price and sometimes even at no cost at all. Nenek would throw away the rotten parts and cook the remaining parts. Mak and her siblings used to wait for lorries that would come by and dump half rotten bananas near where they lived. They would collect these bananas so Nenek could cook them either as goreng pisang, pengat pisang or jemput-jemput. Nothing would be wasted.

Mak used to tell us stories of how others would make nasty remarks on the condition of their house. And there were occasions when people are invited, they would just stand at the doorway, refusing to enter. Embarrassed and hurt by the actions and remarks made by these people who were better off than her, made Mak even more determined to get out of being poor.

Her life changed after she met Abah. Abah was her savior, a gift from Allah. Although Abah was Mak's teacher in secondary school, there was some sort of a connection between them. Through Abah guidance, Mak became a teacher in 1967, right after her A levels. After her marriage to Abah in 1968, she brought her family out of the slums to their 1st rented HDB flat in Beach Road. There was no turning back after that. With the grace of Allah, life kept on getting better and better.

Mak taught me many things about life. She knew how it felt to be insulted, to be looked down upon, to be embarrassed. She taught me the importance of humility. No matter how well off or well education we are, never look down on others because one day, if God is willing, that person may be better off that we were. She taught me to always be grateful. Alhamdullilah is always the best word. She taught me about acceptance; that sometimes when we don't get things that we want, something better is always waiting for us. And alhamdullilah, she has been right all this while. She taught me that always give others the benefit of the doubt. She taught me that we will never be worse off by giving to others.

Although Mak is not perfect, as a human being she has her flaws too, she is a wonderful mother. Throughout the years, she taught me valuable lessons about being a wife, daughter-in-law and a mother. For all the things that she has done and is still doing for me, I could never repay her in terms of money or any other material stuff. But I will always remember her and Abah in my prayers. Ya Allah, ampunkanlah dosa ibu bapa ku. Masukkanlah mereka ke dalam syurga dan jauhkanlah mereka dari azab api neraka. Panjangkan lah umur ibuku. Berilah dia kesihatan yang sempurna dan jauhkanlah dari penyakit yang merbahaya. Amin.