Going someplace

I just realised this post should have been put up in October 2011. 10.10.2011 to be exact. Well it's up now.

I received a phone call last year, in October. I was getting ready for work. Puan Sri Zaimah had passed away. The wife of the late Federal Court Judge, Tan Sri Syed Othman, she passed away peacefully in her sleep sometime in the early morning. She was in her 90s. I knew her as 'Tok'. She took me in as family. She knew me since I was a kid. 

She was always good to me. Staying in her house with her maids, she was probably a little lonely. She kept budgies, and mynah birds. And there was a koi pond in the garden. All her children, grown up and in their 50s and 60s, had their own lives to live (one had recently passed away a few years ago after routine surgery), and were mostly in KL. They did their best to come stay with her from time to time. They were filial, always remembering her although in KL.

I could always talk to her. She was a straight-shooter. She cared about me, always asking me about my life, work, etc. She may have been old, but she still had all her mental faculties about her. She was old-school, and I have immense respect for that generation. In fact, I can connect more with them, then some others nearer to my age. Now I realise what this Generation Gap is all about. But in a different way.

As always, we also wish we had more time with them before they pass on. Death is a part of life, but it's those who remain who share the burden of the loss. She was a part of my life. 

I used to pop in from time to time, mostly after she would call me to come over. I remember once we went out to buy bird-seed. And sometimes I would take her to the bank. And we had the buffet-lunch at a hotel once.

I was always invited for Hari Raya. It was the one place I knew I was welcome, and felt so.

Who we are, is also affected by who we interact with. She brought a ray of hope into my life. I will never forget her. 

Al-fatihah.