the one to share

you'll never know where you're heading to until you know where you came from. a wise man once said that. I took it seriously.

opah came by last saturday. her first visit since we moved in. opah is my father's mother. during my younger days, with the constant moving and all, I was never close to opah. we were never did, my siblings. lately, as I grew older, its easier to talk to her.

I wrote once when I tended to her for a good 2 weeks. my maid left and I was at home just finished studying. so, she came and stayed for 2 weeks. I practically were her breakfast, lunch and dinnermate. and we talked about everything when we have the chance, if she's not reciting the qur'an or praying.

last saturday, she asked how my work and traveling is. I told her, its pretty tiring to travel but work is great as for I got the opportunity to meet great people, have tea and lunch with them and just work within the vicinity of one of the greatest leader in the world, its just a blessing for me. she constantly said how she prayed for me and grateful to the Lord for giving me these opportunities.

then she started her story.

opah dulu cikgu. selepas sekolah rendah, at the age of 12, she had became a teacher. imagine! teacher at 12 years old. bila budak2 berlari tak dengar kata, opah would scream calling the headmaster, "Cikgu Besar! Tengok budak budak ni!". This is before the independence, late 1930s.

opah dulu walked 3 miles to her school to teach. even when she was pregnant, she walked 3 miles. kalau naik basikal, bahaya. so better walk. but still, 3 miles is a long journey for a pregnant lady.

opah buka cerita tentang my ancestors. from her side, my great great great (tak tahu la berapa banyak great daaa) grandfather came from Patani. He was actually the key holder to the palace for Kerajaan Patani. kemudian, he travelled down south melalui sungai golok and through sungai perak, ended up at parit, perak. I've shorten this version as I couldn't recall it. shame on my memory when opah can still remember all the names. she was telling me this tale, and then my aunty nak ajak her balik, but she said, "tunggu, mak tengah cerita ni. sementara masih ingat". they was surprised how I was so interested to listen becos apparently only the two of us left in the living room, she story telling, me quitely listening. I will ask her more and jot it down next time. I need to jot this down. next time, insyaAllah.

a friend once told me that I'll look like opah when I get older. I don't know that. but what I do know, I hope to inherit her righteousness, her memory hebatness, and her patience. I also would love to inherit my maktok's (my mom's mother) patience. both grandmothers are patient women. (",)

I felt like sharing becos I know some of us have lots our grandmothers, and some of us have them still but forgot to spare some time to sit down and talk to them.

some who have lost, we send out our prayers for them and prayed the best for them. no on lives forever. god loves them more and wanted to have them up there earlier.

I lost both my grandfathers when I was still young. Sad to know that I never had the chance to be as this grown up who have the initiative to sit down and talk to them. the only fond memories of them were my atuk (opah's husband) used to give us (me and cousins) sweets whenever he got back from his morning coffee at the chinese coffee shop in pekan parit, and of my tok ayah (maktok's husband) combing my hair on raya morning whenever we went back to kelantan.

I hope I'll live long to pass on the stories I got from opah and maktok to my children and grandchildren.

"afis kalau boleh nak semua orang hidup sampai afis mati. lepas tu baru boleh sorang sorang mati"
-afis (my youngest 'big' adorable brother) when asked what will he do when all of us have died-

(",)

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