A memoir of an Uncle..

He used to slap my face when I made faces at his back.

Name :: His name is Mohamad bin Ibrahim. He was an english teacher in my last primary school, SK Pulau Sebang. As the disciplinary teacher, he appointed me to be one of the prefect in the school, no matter what other teachers said.

My life & him :: I was staying at the kampung for 2 years when my father went to germany. With his Honda C70, he dedicatedly took his wife, his 2 sons and 3 of us to school. 2 rounds everyday and he never complained! In the evening, he'll wait for me from Sekolah Agama. Then, if it's not raining, 3 of us, his eldest son, me and my brother will take a ride on his bike and we go round the kampung, looking for wild roosters or shooting squirrels! It was so fun.

Hobby :: His hobby was to go hunting. Normally for wild pigeon, deer, mousedeer, which are consumable. But sometimes, when people ask, he'll hunt the squirrels which damages people's plant, or even wild boars. And sometimes we'll go hunt the wild roosters in the jungle.

Attitude :: And he speaks loud too! I think the whole kampng will hear him talking. Sometimes i found it irritating but I should accept the fact that he was just being himself. He was always make fun of other people, and his laugh was a medicine to me. When he laughs, all of us will smile.

Leadership :: At the night of Raya every year, he'll be leading the crowd to takbir from house to house in the kampung.

Lifestyle :: He used to have a lot of singing birds. They were all around the house of my granma. And he trains people football at school too. All I can say, he was an active person. Just that, he was having a lot of bad habits such as smoking and taking sweet drink and food.

Stroke :: A shocking incident happens during the Raya Haji of 1998. He was getting a stroke and was hospitalized. He was really in a very bad shape when I came to visit him in the hospital. I was just recovered from my accident previously.

Sadness :: Since then, no more loud laughter. No more jokes from him. He will just sit at the end of my granma's house hall and stare people from there. All his friends were gone. I was sad but my sadness was ended by other bad consequences of his illnesses.

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Chronology..

Last Raya :: I was so wanting to be at the kampung. I want to join in the crowd praying takbir from home to home. I don't know why. The feeling was so strong to celebrate it in the kampung this year. But I've to let my brothers to take their turn this year.

During Raya :: I was there for just one day and went off to KL with my family. I've wanted to stay longer but my family have other plans. Was in kampung again a few days later but I can't find where my uncle is.

Till last Sunday :: When I made a call to my father, my mom answered and told me that she was from the kampung and my uncle was in a very bad shape and no longer able to hear anything we say. I was worried but when I called my aunt she said that everything was okay.

Last Tuesday :: My brother called and told me that he'd passed away at 4.00 pm. I can say nothing but asked him back "Are you serious???"

Back to kampung :: I was driving as fast as possible to my kampung. Was from KL at 5.30 pm. The traffic was slow from Nilai to Seremban due to road works. After Seremban, I took the highway at 180-200 km/h just to arrive there as soon as I can do. My car cannot go faster than that otherwise I would made it much earlier.

@Kampung :: People come and visiting. I was so tired. I can't hold myself from sleeping. Everyone else, except me, my father and all other kids seems to be not so in the mood of the funeral. I was acting as usual, as u know, as a muslim, your shouldn't be crying over someone's death.

Morning :: Started to get busy for the funeral. I was preparing the lahad board, picking up the carrier from the graveyard, and picking up the place to cleanup/bathe the dead body from the mosque.

Cried... :: It's the time for the last chance to see his face. Everyone came and kiss him. My tears dropped just after I kissed him on his cheeks and forehead. And followed by both my 2 brothers. I burst badly into tears, seeing my brother swiping his tears from his eyes. I was crying like a child when my aunt came and hugged me...

******

* If he's still alive and kicking, there'll be a lot of laughter and joke from him .

* He taught a lot of things about life and living. He planted a lot of fruit trees and said, "these are for y'all, not for me." I was always denying by saying, "no, u'll be there when these trees fruit."

* I learned to ride motorbike by banging his motorbike into a wall. He was mad but he said nothing to me. Tomorrow, his bike has been back to normal and he let me to ride on it again.

* He showed me thumbs up when I first time took my gf home (but he didn't like my brother's ex-gf)

* During his illness, he was always cried seeing me coming back home. I told him not to cry or I'm not coming. Since then he never cries.

* During this year's raya, I don't have any idea why he acted abnormally. Normally he'll be sad but this time, he asked to be given more and more food. I was thinking that he do not want to how off his sadness, but it's actually something else.

May Allah bless him. I just want the whole worl to know that I love my Pak Lang so much and no one could replace him as my Pak Lang.

Al-Fatihah...