Ummi & Abah just arrived in Mekah, and prior to their absence, they've left a wasiat. Well it's actually just a few pesanan but Ummi somehow wanted to sound dramatic so she was like
"Meh sini semua anak Nordin denga wasiat" and so there we stood, the three of us, in the master bedroom.
I'm getting used to it, all the
'eldest child responsibility shift' that has been on my shoulders for the past years. It's not that the eldest is neglecting her responsibilities or anything, it's just that she's always out and about and she's always coincidentally absent throughout the breaking affairs in our family, so it's
always usually me handling these situations. And I don't have a right-hand man either, Una's far away to the East since the past 5 years and her presence is just as rare as Qilah's so I'm usually dealing this alone, which is good for me I guess. I mean, I'm a carefree person, I take nothing seriously so when a responsibility this heavy is shifted on my shoulders, I know well not to take it lightly.
I remember the first time I was directly bound with trust, it was a few years ago, I just recently settled down in a co-ed government school, and Abah suddenly was diagnosed with Diabetes. During that time, Qilah and Una was away, so I had the eldest shift, and Ummi was in the midst of her PhD studies, so it was a very hard time on her. Ummi took me to see Abah, Yam and Ahmad were probably in school. Ummi started conversing with Abah about medicine and stuff, and I wasn't paying much attention until Ummi suddenly burst out crying. Abah tried to console her but...she kind of had all the reasons to be sad, and Abah turned to me with this very serious yet worried face and said
"Jaga Ummi baik-baik, jaga adik-adik." and I knew right then, that this is immensely important.
The wasiat was very simple.
- Ifah (me) is in charge, adik-adik needs to listen to her.
- Ifah (me) holds the household money: groceries & gas money
- No fighting among siblings (In which Maryam answered "No promises")
- No PSP, computer during a school night (In which Ahmad responded "No promises")
- Never leave prayers
and I really hope things go smoothly for the next 44 days, especially the days when I'm gone back to IIUM. I don't want my parents to worry much, and speaking of the adjective, Atuk and Nenek were particularly worrying and missing their dear daughter in Mekah, they didn't even have much appetite.
We were having Kerang for lunch and Atuk was signaling me to look at Nenek, who didn't finish her plate. He was mouthing to me "Rindu anok, tok lalu make" in which nenek replied "Kito tok tahu, dio make ke dok denun, kito kenye sini" and then Atuk and Sue dah was going on and on about how they give food to people nowadays, that tabung haji has developed to caring for the jemaah's welfare and stuff. And in the end even Atuk didn't finish his plate. (Lol, comel je)
Lunch was interesting today, Atuk talked about his children's name and why he named them the way they are. My mother has a very short name, Salwana. Simplest name I've ever heard, and yet my aunt has a quite complicated name and I asked why. He said, it was based on a srikandi (cewah). Some dude in Indonesia was being hunted and he fled leaving his daughter to the bibik, who smuggled the baby out of the castle and survived. And then I asked about my uncle, his name is Silmi, and Atuk explained that it literally means pendamai and around the time of the birth, the conflict between Malaysia and Indonesia was settled, thus it inspired him.
Lol, it's funny to think that Atuk names his children based on current events. And then Sue dah mentioned that Atok's name wasn't originally as it is. His original name was Ramli and then he changed it to Hassan. I kept asking why but he made grunting noises and Nenek was talking about Ramli being the name of an entertainer "duk galok sano sini" referring to the legendary P,Ramlee, and it became even funnier picturing Ummi's name with a Ramli at the back.
Lol.
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