Everyone looks forward to their birthdays every year. Well, I don’t look forward at knowing I’ll be a year older (ask all my friends… they know that I am forever in my late 20’s), but I look forward to the birthday wishes, the thoughts that others remember… it makes it all warm and fuzzy inside, you know. And I like that. Getting a gift is of course something better. But at this age, I don’t get gifts all the time (though I know that I’ll be getting something from my Hommies towards year end). But I don’t mind. It’s the thought that counts.
Anyway, I looked forward to 19th October 2010 this year because I know that it was a special day for me. But I was woken up by crying and sobbing from outside the room. It was 6am. I thought the crying came from someone on the upper floor, but when I listened closely, it was from the living room. I quickly got out of bed and opened the bedroom room. There was Aini, my maid, sobbing and wailing relentlessly on the sofa. Bie was sitting on the other sofa looking forlorn. Aini grabbed my hand and hugged me. I was shocked. What happened? What was going on? Then in between sobs, she said, “Suami saya dah takder Puan” (my husband is no longer around). I kept quiet and looked at Bie. He explained further saying that she just learned that her husband had passed away. I was stunned. She was due to go back to Lombok in the middle of next month. And I know that she was planning to stay in Bali for a night with her husband, a second honeymoon so to speak. I hugged her tightly and held her hands. They were ice cold. She was in a state of shock. I asked Bie to call my parents, then my in-laws and asked them to come to my house. I didn’t know what to do in such a situation and I was sure that with my parents around, they would know how to console her. I held her for another half an hour, stroking her hair, asking her to have patience and recite istighfar, but she kept on sobbing. At this point in time, she still did not know how her husband passed away. And that was how my birthday began on 19th October.
My parents-in-law arrived. Bak bought prepaid worth RM20 so that she could call home and find out more on what happened. I was getting ready to go to the hospital. I had my monthly check-up to go to. As I was about to leave, I heard more wailing this time coming from her room. I knew that Aini was not fit to take care of my son, what with being in the state of sadness and all, so I quickly woke Raqib up, bathed him and brought him with me to the hospital. I asked Mak to stay with her in her room. It was the least I could do. I couldn’t bear to leave her alone.
My doctor noted that I had increased 3kg in one month. I now weigh 58kg and 5 months pregnant. Oh well, I know that I am on the road to recovery, so I guess I have to start watch what I eat. She also shared with me good news; I may be having a girl. I was quite surprised. All the signs show that I maybe having a boy even though I wanted a girl. I didn’t mind. As long as the baby is healthy, I am fine. But having a girl would be most wonderful. After all, we don’t have many girls in the family. So both my parents and in-laws would welcome the news most joyously. But of course, this is still too early. There could be a possibility that the gender was hidden, and that was why the doctor didn’t see any ‘siput’ there. But it’s ok. It was good news for me nonetheless considering how my birthday began that day.
When I reached home around noon, I found Aini downstairs at the apartment lobby talking to her friend. Her eyes were all puffy. I asked her how her husband passed away and was told that it was a motorbike accident; head on collision with another motorbike. Four of them passed away with her brother-in-law still critical at the hospital. I was shocked but quickly recomposed myself as I didn’t want to upset her. Aini also told me that she wanted to go back to Lombok as soon as possible. I told her that I still needed to renew her permit because it expires next month. After all, we have done her medical check-up. She told me that she didn’t care. All she knows was that she had to go home. She will find a way to come back here later after her permit expires. And since there was no way to talk her out of it, we decided that it’d be best that she went back the next day. After all, she was not in a position to do anything. She was crying all the time. And I pity her.
We bought her a return ticket earlier. She was due to come back on 15 March next year (I know.. I’m a good boss. Most people would never allow such long holiday, but she has been telling me this since we renewed her permit last year, and she obviously had her reasons, and I don’t really fancy hiring a new maid, so I ultimately agreed). But since this happened, I don’t know whether she’s coming back here at all. What with the new baby coming.. [sigh].. oh well, we’ll cross the bridge when we get there.
So that afternoon, I went to the bank to withdraw all her money, and went to Air Asia to change the departure date. Later that night when my parents arrived, we held a ‘tahlil’ session for the ‘arwah’ after Isya’ prayers. She was very grateful and also moved that my family cared for her so much. The thing is we don’t really treat her like a maid. What we eat is what she would eat. Wherever we go, we would always bring her. And Ibu was very supportive of her. Yeah, she’s closer to my mother compared to me. I guess me being her boss and everything; she still feels that there ought to be some imaginary boundaries restricting herself from getting too close to me.
The next day we sent her to the airport. But Allah’s test does not stop there. She missed her 3.50pm flight. I guess we were all at fault. We delayed in getting her to be checked in. We didn’t want her to be alone. So when she finally checked in at 3.30pm, she missed her flight. The funny thing was that, there were no announcements at all reminding the passangers of the flights that were going to take-off. I did hear announcements made for Macau and Singapore, but none for Bali.
The farewell session itself was a bit dramatic. My children, especially Marsya was very sad to see her off. Marsya was crying non-stop and repeatedly asked Aini when she was going to come back. Raqib surprisingly was not as sad as Marsya. I guess him being younger and not understanding much contributed to his lack of emotions. Aini was also crying as she hugged me and Ibu. The farewell session probably took a while too, and I guess that also contributed to her missing her flight.
We were already on our way back when the Air Asia officer called and told us that Aini missed her flight. We were all shocked. How could that be? It was just impossible. But it happened alright. So we made a u-turn and returned to the airport. We were told to buy another ticket as the next flight to Bali was at 5.55pm. But when Bie went to the sales counter, he was told that they couldn’t issue a new ticket anymore and that the next flight was at 10.55am the next day. It was their policy and if we still wanted them to issue a new ticket, then it was up to the discretion of the officer in charge. So yeah, we were treated like ping-pong balls; asked to go here, there, everywhere. Finally Bie got mad and went to see the officer again at the sales counter and demanded that the ticket be issued there and then. He also said it was an emergency and that Aini had to get on the 5.55pm flight. The officer finally relented and asked his colleague to issue a new ticket. And blessed to Allah, rather than pay the fare of a new ticket which cost us RM370, we only paid the penalty and the difference of the fare price between the one bought earlier and the new fare. We ended up paying only RM164. Blessed to Allah.
We waited for another half an hour to make sure that there were no more glitches and finally left the airport at 5.30pm. My children were complaining of hunger. I was hungry myself. I only ate half a doughnut and two slices of bread that morning. So we stopped at the MEX rest area and ate there. By that time, it was already 6.30pm.
When we got home, Marsya was crying again demanding that I called Aini as she wanted to speak to her. She also went to Aini’s room and stayed there on her mattress while crying. Raqib on the other hand was giving me a hard time too. He was throwing tantrums; not wanting anyone else to entertain him except me. I was dead tired that night. And him acting like that didn’t help. So yeah, there were a few pinches and slaps courtesy of his Umi that night. Even Ibu was worried about me. She asked me to be patient and tried to help out wherever possible. I don’t know. I was just TOO tired that night.
The next day, I was still on emergency leave. Not having Aini around proved to be quite difficult. I didn’t make Marsya’s milo the way that she liked and she didn’t like the egg sandwich that I made for her to bring to school (she said yucks.. can you imagine that.. sabar jerlah), and the list went on. Well, I’ve had little practice. Give me a break. I cooked lunch, fed my kids, and made sure that the laundry was sorted out. And that was me at home on emergency leave. This morning, I made tuna sandwich for breakfast (as well as for Marsya to bring to school). But I didn’t know where her school bag was, and didn’t know where her clean socks were. So yeah, she went to school today with no socks on. So imagine, the littlest things in life, which I have never bothered to even think about before have now began to materialize.
I don’t know how I am going to go about my daily routine with Aini out of the picture. But I guess I’ll just have to deal with it in my own ways. I believe Allah will help. After all, He was the one that planned all this for me. I’m sure He has His reasons for doing this. Temporarily, I will place Raqib with my parents in Seremban. Marsya will stay in KL with me as she has school to attend to. Come school break, I will send both my children to USJ to stay with my Maksu. I will not pick them up everyday; perhaps once in 2 to 3 days, I’ll pick them up. But I don’t mind. At least USJ is closer than Seremban. Maksu asked me to send Raqib to stay with her for a week or so, but I don’t think it’s fair for Maksu. She’s in between moving from PJ to USJ. I don’t want to impose. I know for sure though that by the middle of November, she will permanently be in USJ.
So yeah, that was the turn of event that took place on my birthday. It didn’t exactly turn out the way I wanted it to. Oh well, I suppose there’s a ‘hikmah’ for this. All these were planned by Allah and like I said, I suppose there are reasons as to why He planned it as such. We just have to ‘redha’… Insya Allah.
Wish me luck!
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