In Loving Memory - Nenek*

My granny, Agnes Jindot has passed away 11 years ago on 28th Mei 1998 due to lung and heart failure. I just remember it today after I called my mom. My mother is going to invite the neighborhood for a rosary prayer at home this Saturday. This year I will not be around, so my lil brother and Adam's family since we are not going back for this Harvest Festival which fall on the 1st June.

Nenek (name that I called her or Sumuk by other cousins) was born in 1916 to a Bidayuh couple that lives in rural area call Krokong, Bau. She was then had a arranged marriage with her then husband (my grandfather) a chinese miner when she was only 14 years old. (Bau is a gold mining town in the Kuching Division). She then had 8 daughters and a son. After a dreadful divorce, she went back to the Krokong and start a new life in a piece of land deep in the jungle. My mother was only 4 years old and nenek was pregnant with her younger daughter when the divorce took place. She do farming, paddy planting, rubber tapping and some other things to feed her children and send them to school. She is a real tough woman. I do know that because my mother and her siblings always talked about their mother all the time whenever they miss her so much.

I was quite naughty when nenek took care of me when my parent were not at home. I always complaining that her Milo is not delicious at all (My lil brother and I was still bottle feeding). Complaining that she nags us all the time (I was really damn naughty). Sometimes I would demand her to cook me Chicken Curry for lunch (I loves Chicken Curry and so nenek too). She loves me more than any of her grandchildren I guess because she wanted to leave her jewelry to me when she die (but my mother puts it all in her coffin). Remember one day when one of my brother studied in UUM, Sintok. I had this conversation with her at home. I was in Form 4 at that moment of time.

Marvic: Nenek, once Boni graduated from UUM, all of us will be there including you. We going to have holiday in Kedah then to Penang, KL..It surely will be fun right... ( I were combing my hair while having this conversation)
Nenek: Yes. We surely will go there with God's will... (she smiling to me)
Marvic: Of course we will be going there. After Boni, then it would be my graduation and you will be there too. The we take photo together. I'll get the hats(mortarboard) for you.
Nenek: Hmm...then you should study hard and dont watch tv all the time...
Marvic: Hmmm..ok.. (making faces since she said dont watch tv all the time..I love to watch tv)

(The real conversation was in Bahasa Melayu Sarawak and mixed up of Bidayuh dialect.Translation done in English for your reading)

She has gone way before I managed to finish my Secondary School. So every time I think of her, I felt a bit sad because she didnt manage to see her grandchildren doing quite well and she was not there with me when I were graduated. I just wished that she is still alive and she would be happy staying with us. I miss you nenek. I miss your smile, your nags, your cooks etc. May you rest in peace nenek.

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Ahmad Nazif