aunties

At birth i had around 8 aunties, siblings of my parents. sadly,yesterday,26th. october 2018, a second auntie ,puan hajjh zauyah ,a sister of my father passed away in seremban.mak Ne, as we all called her,passed away due to old age complications,am not sure wether it is dementia, alzheimer or parkinsons,but i am aware thAt she has had some serious handicapping affliction for quite some time as she was in the care of my elder sister,hajah RAMLAH ,for some time. DEATH IS ALWAYS A SAD OCCASION, AND NOT SOMETHING ONE LOOK FORWARD TO . HOWEVER, GOOD MANNERS, DEMANDS US TO SHOW RESPECT AND ATTEND THE CLOSING STAGES OF DEATH, WHICH IN ISLAM ENCOMPASS SEVERAL HEART WRENCHING RITUALS CULMINATING IN THE BURIAL OF THE DECEASED.IN MY CURRENT PHYSICAL STATE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO ATTEND. ALAs, MY angelic youngest sister,puan hajah jamaliah,took the trouble to arrange for a GRAB transport to pick me up from home and meet her at her office in shah alam. wherefrom we will depart for seremban. so ,i was lucky and grateful enough to be there in seremban2 to be present in joining the farewell rituals for allahyarhamah puan hajah zauyah. i was overcomed by the occasion and cried a bit. first in 20 years, and when i reflect upon it,my sadness was more because it reminded me my dear departed father,whose final journey i missed as i was then in guinea africa. surely, auntie means different things to everyone. growing up ,i ranked auntie, by how much i can expect raya money from them. hajah zauyah was a lifetime mother to my cousins and i am not aware of her having had a job. thus raya money from her, was nominal.i will not be a hypocrite by claiming that i am close to her. no,she was my fathers sister and thus i should accord the same respect and love to her as i did to my father. the best thing for me was that i get to meet again numerous people ,whom i have not seen for close to 30 years, syukur alhamdulillah,met up with pak chu musa,omar pak andak zuli, my cousins, ariff, aziz,hassan,yusof and lastly, my beloved sister, hajjah ramlah,her husband,haji azman, and numerous young and old relatives, whose existence i was not aware of,have never met before and privileged to meet before it is my turn to go. goodbye MAK NE. whos next????,me?????