Mak was born in 1936 - according to her birth certificate. So, she is now 77 years old. I am really grateful and also thankful to Allah, alhamdulillah for allowing me more time to spend with her and vice versa.
I just came back from my hometown for Eidul Adha celebration last Wednesday and on Thursday I received a call from the Head's office asking me to attend a course this week nearby my hometown (considered 1:15min + another 40min as nearby lah). Of course, I was excited for the opportunity to go home again and I took emergency leave on Monday thinking that the course will be on Wed-Thurs, thus check-in by Tue - insert another long story here.
Anyway, I drove down with a colleague on Sunday, stopped at Bukit G*ntang R&R to buy some tropical fruits: huge, humangous mangoes; limau madu and promegranate (delima). I forgot that mak has pedih ulu hati (heart burns) nowadays which means she cannot enjoy what used to be her favourite: most greenish limau means most masam/sourish!
She is having trouble with simple things around the house: how to start the machine for washing her clothes instead of only spinning (she relies more upon this now since her hands/arms hurt - kopek kelapa punya pasal); every time she charges the battery-is-dead phone, she do not know how to switch it on again; with the new S-tro remote, she cannot watch her normal tv channel, TV1-TV3, every time the last person watching left the tv at whatever channels; and she prefers to listen to my radio in the room because of nicer songs than the one outside which is always on N9.fm but she do not know how to make it works. She is also having difficulty fastening the car seat belt since she can no longer turn right and left like she used to (and we always take this for granted)...and I feel bad for not helping her!
On Tuesday, my sister went for her follow-up at the GH along with her husband which just left the two of us at home. She prepared breakfast already but me and mak already concurred that her fried mee wasn't up to our taste buds hahahaha...and I'm too lazy to cook! So, I told her, "Mak, wanna have K*C for lunch?" Surprisingly, she said yes!! No need to ask her twice as per normal procedure...you know, we ask and she declined such that we had to ask again.. & eventually push her to come along hahaha...unless she really didn't want to!
Ok, our date was set to 11am (in retrospective, the business opens at 10:30am) and of we go! I was deserving of a proper lunch plate set given that I swept and mopped the floor already since she mentioned that she did it bit by bit only..
But then, when I push open the door, "Alaa mak...no table (provided on ground floor) lah...we have to take away - bring it back home!" Imagine her disappointment...it's her first time eating in at the new branch although someone in the family already brought home the take aways from time to time. Thank you to the kind and nice male branch manager *I assumed* who offered to bring down a table from upstairs! I'm forever indebted to this branch such that instead of having 2 sets of Special Tuesday Offer, I agreed to his suggestion to try the new offering. Can you imagine the sweetness of my special lunch date with mak? Just the two of us and she finished up her two pieces. According to Along, I updated the family Whatsapp with photo to prove, he has been thinking along the line, "it has been quite some time since mak had K*C!" And he said, normal portion for mak is 3 pieces! Ouch, failed dieting...
During lunch, I noticed her wrinkled hands - those hands use to work hard to put food on the tables literally for the family and especially me - because she started to tap rubber by herself when I was in primary school. I asked her, why didn't she put some lotion on those hands? No lotion was her replied...I promised myself there and then to buy her some really nice lotion for hands soon!
During the drive home, I asked her whether she waited outside the school everyday for the other siblings or simply just me? Since she started to ride bike only by then, so I was the only lucky one! Was I ever grateful? I bet you wouldn't want to know what was going on my mind during those pick-ups time...
And mak wasn't the only one getting older. I getting more and more forgetful now. I mixed up the dates for the workshop and it wasn't normal at all - almost unsangka-able to me! I noticed white hairs of my colleagues and neighbours..and how much longer do I have? Am I prepared for the hereafter? I do hope it is not too late...
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