My Abah, My Hero

It was a very busy week for me, and I hope things would slow down next week. It was very tiring, and at each end of the day, I just wanted to curl up on my bed with my book. 

This week, to be exact 14th June, marked six months since abah left us, but he continues to live in our memory every day. Not a single day passed by without my kids, or me talked about him. And it will be first time we will be celebrating the Father's Day without him.

Abah and mak has been married for 59 years, and they were blessed with seven children, eighteen grandchildren, five great-grandchildren. A very big family and we miss him, especially when Raya is coming soon.

When I went back to Seremban last week to visit mak, I saw his room was kept just they way it was. No changes to the room even after six months. The only thing I saw missing was his medicine, which he kept on the side table next to his bed.

Abah always think about his kids even though he didn’t show it to us. Whenever he knew that one of the kids coming home, he would be the busiest man. Not cleaning the house, but stocking the house with our favorite foods, and would remind mak to cook our favorite.

Heh! Abah loved to eat, and he was a great cook also. If mak specialized in Malay food, abah was the one responsible to introduce us to western food. When we were small, he cooked for us eggs and bean for breakfast or sometimes steaks for dinner. His Fried Rice was fantastic. Sometimes we prefer abah’s cooking to mak. Whenever we asked abah to cook, mak would be happy as she didn’t have to cook for us that day.

Abah was also a great influencer on us. He encouraged us to speak English, and introduced us to the world of Scrabble. I always like to play against him. Eventhough, he didn’t finish his school, it didn’t stop him from learning. Do you want to know why? It was all due to the World War 2. He stopped going to school went the Japanese invaded Malaysia.

After the war, he went to work in Singapore and joined the British Army. He picked up English when he was there. He came back to Malaysia to marry mak, and he became mechanics. They relocated to Port Dickson.

Maybe army was always in his blood. Not long after that, he joined Malaysian army. He didn’t join the Malay Regiment unit but the Electrical Mechanical and Engineering (EME) unit. He continues to excel in this area, and he was selected to attend training in Fort Bragg, Maryland in US. That’s inspired us to do well and further our study in US too.

When I bought my first car, a used car, I asked abah to test and choose the car for me. Not only me, my sisters and brothers, did that too. Every time we had a problem we our car, he would be our reference point. 

He was such a handy man too. Anything that broke down in the house, he would repair it. Sometimes mak would say, “If abah is still around, he will repair this.” Ohhh! She missed her partner. We too!

Ya Allah, ampunkan dosa abah kami. Tempatkanlah dia di dalam golongan orang-orang yang beriman. Amin.


Salam.