We had planned to go to Johor Bahru on the 12th December 2009 . We wanted to send our daughter Farin to go back to her campus after a month long semester break of her Masters programme. We had to send her because we did not want her to drive her Kembara all by herself . However due to my wife's eye disease ( the normal sakit mata ) ,she decided to postpone our trip a day later , ie. on the 13th December hoping that it would then subside .
At aboout 11.20 pm 12th December 2009 while I was in my room upstairs surfing the internet to look for a good makan place in JB ,suddenly I heard my wife cried loudly downdtairs .I thought something must have gone wrong downstairs . A few seconds later she burst into my room crying while informing me that her mother had passed away in JB . Immediately , I told my wife to pack up and and we would start on the journey that night itself .At first she told me that we should go only the next morning . I then told her that even if we were at home we would not be able to sleep that night and we might as well drive slowly .
At about 12.00 midnight we ( the 3 of us ) began our journey to JB . It was a slow drive because I was driving an 8 years old Kembara and I was worried of it's engine. We stopped over at Pagoh to ease ourselves and a quick cup of tea before resuming our journey . There I realised there was a peculiar sound from the engine . However we proceeded to our destination while praying all the way to Allah for His protection . At about 06.15 am we reached my mother in-law's place . After performing my Subuh prayers , I went inside my mother in-law's room to recite the Surah Yassin , verses from the Holy Quran . I manage to read it 3 times and prayed for Allah's s protection during her sojourn to the next world .
My mother in-law was a soft spoken , kind lady who never said bad things about others , no matter how bad she/he was . She had been nice to me right from the days when I was still not well off . As far I could remember nothing that she ever did that could have hurt me . I have the fullest respect for her and infact my respect for her was more than that to my own mother . Her demise would certainly have a profound effect on me .With her passing away , I have an unfulfilled wish , that is to bring her to our new house in Klang .Each time I visited her she would tell me that she would like very much to come to our house but when I invited her to come she would tell me to wait when her health would get better .
She died at the age of 88 , an age that I consider long enough for one to live in this world . All my sisters in-law except my wife and her eldest sister were at her bedside when she passed away peacefully . I was told that a few hours earlier she did ask for my wife and they told her that she would come only next week . Obviously they did not get the right information from my wife . Moreover I believed ( as she has always been in that habit ) my wife wanted to make a surprise visit to my mother in-law . This time it was not my mother in-law who was in for a surprise but instead she was .
Our sons Aizad and Azman and their families and our daughter Eileen who managed to get a compassionate leave from the Hsopital ,arrived at about 10.00 am just in time for them to pay their last respect to their late grandmother .
All the religious rituals were done in the house itself attended by close family members . At about 11.20 am 13th December 2009 my mother in-law was laid to rest at the Muslim cemetry at Jalan Majidee, Johor Bahru .
At about noon we sent our daughter Farin to her campus in Skudai . On the way at Skudai town, we stopped at a workshop to make an appointment to have Farin's car repaired . We were told that the piston was faulty and had to be replaced and it would cost us a few hundred bugs .
Although I had earlier planned to stay in JB for a day or two , I however decided to put it a side and got back to Klang that day itself together with our son Azman . My wife decided to remain behind .We left JB at about 5.00 pm and reached Klang at about 10.00 pm.
