The passing of grandfathers' youngest wife.

Today is the passing of my grandfathers' last wife. I have already mentioned her in my episode 'In loving memory of my grandfather'. She had died in her sleep at a ripe old age of almost ninety. 'May her soul rest in peace'.

I have known this women for a very long time. She was always quiet and hardly do anything in the house.I remember her as the woman who would always be sitting by the front door looking out into the street. She hardly cook, other than just boiling her own rice and cooking her own 'ikan rebus' and eating it quietly in the kitchen.

She also hardly leave the house, except to visit her family in Gunung, a kampung about 45 minutes bus rides. She would take a bus in the morning and will usually come back after spending a few nights there. Other than that I don't remember her going anywhere.

She hardly ever participate in any of our daily activities. She was also a woman of few words. She also never took the initiative to learn new things. I remember one day grandfather was so anxious to teach her to sew on our sewing machine. My grandfather sort- of -drag her to the machine, put her foot on the pedal and asked her to push the pedal. We waited for her to push the pedal, but she would not do it. So, that was the first and the last time I saw my grandfather trying to teach her to learn anything.

When she gave birth to my auntie, she hardly took care of the baby.The baby was left entirely to us i.e my mother and me. I was only nine years old then, but she would trust me with the baby (my auntie). I would bathe the baby and dress her and my mother will feed the baby.

My mother practically became the mother and me her assistant. Now that she was gone, I would still remember how much she look up to me and I was always there for her when she needed me most.

This happen when I performed my Haj in the eighties. She went with another group and I went with another group, but by the will of Allah, I met her there. I could see how thrilled she was to see me. After meeting me she refused to join her group and wanted to join me instead. She was with her nephew then. But we tried to be with her as much as we can so as not to dissapoint her. After prayer I would bring her food and spent some time with her everyday throughout our stay inMecca. She was so happy.