Six Years Ago...

I was in Tabuan Dusun, Kuching Sarawak around this time on Feb 26, 2003 when one of my brothers in Kota Kinabalu called me that our mother had been admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Earlier one of my sisters also called me that she was going home from the hospital, saying that our mother was in stable condition and had even asked why she (my sister) was still at her bedside.

My wife, who arrived Kuching earlier in the day, told me that mother showed no sign of serious illness that was why she joined me , at that time I was the New Straits Times news editor for Sabah and Sarawak, based in Kuching.

Later in the night, my brother called me to tell me that my mother was in a coma and around midnight, she left us forever. My wife and I took the first flight out of Kuching and arrived home to our house in Kampung Kionsom, Inanam before noon.

Two days later, we laid our mother at the Bingkasan Family Cemetery which is now just a stone throw from my own house. Today, I stayed at home the whole day reminiscing my/our life with our mother until the day she left us forever.

My father also came to my house but we did not talk about mother. I know that deep in my father's heart was what is in my heart on this day - six years after my mother passed away.

One thing that I will always remember is what my mother often told me, she said ~Good or bad a mother I am, You will never find another me in the world~ This make me cry.