Sorry I haven't been blogging for so long. It was really flattering to know that at least one reader missed the blog (thanks OuiOui). There was so much going on this month (which actually had started since last month); significant events that changed the lives of some of the people around me, and thus maybe had indirectly changed my life, too.
I have been meaning to write about two of my close friends. One, I have written about previously, that is my Assistant Director - RZA - the one who introduced me to Virtua Cop. The other is Nini, my housemate.
It started with Nini first. Her father had a stroke one afternoon. He collapsed at a coffee shop in Sabak Bernam, thankfully in front of his friends, one a paramedic. They sent him to the hospital nearby immediately, and was told that he had to be admitted to the CICU as soon as possible. The nearest available was in Kelang, but unfortunately the ward was full. So they had to rush him to Ipoh instead.
Nini got to know about the incident that evening, and sadly, I was away on a seminar in Gombak. I could not imagine how she felt then, as it was too late to take a bus or even a flight back to KL.
Later she would learn that her dad will suffer from paraplegia, and had to be fed milk through a tube. The doctors allowed him to go home after spending a few days at the Ipoh hospital.
Then another bad news came up.
Last month, RZA's fiancee was diagnosed with leukemia. It started with her having stomachaches. I still remember the weekend the stomachaches got worse; RZA and I were due to drive back to Kuantan that Sunday night. RZA told me he was going to be late. When we finally met at the Burger King joint just before the Karak Highway, he told me that his fiancee Y had gotten worse so he had to send her to her aunt's house. A few days after that, RZA was told that Y was admitted to the hospital. He went to visit her the next day, and that evening he texted me that the doctors suspected leukemia. The diagnosis came on a Thursday - he came to my room crying. We (RZA, my HOD (yes, that HOD, OuiOui ;) ) and I) drove straight away to KL. She started chemotherapy almost immediately, and RZA visited and stayed with her without fail and as much as possible whenever he could. They were due to get married on the 22 of May, and even after the diagnosis, they stuck with the plan.
But who are we to meddle with God's plans? Malays have a saying "jodoh dan ajal di tangan tuhan", Nini's dad passed away just before she made a move to drive back to kuantan (and picking me and another colleague up on the way). The colleague and I went to visit her that night, and although she was in grief, she seemed to have accepted the loss.
That was on the second Sunday of May. On the following Wednesday morning, I received a call from RZA's twin, asking me where I, and RZA were. I said I had just arrived at the office, and I hadn't seen RZA yet; why? He told me that Y passed away that morning. I did not believe him at first, with his detached tone of voice. But he was not joking; he told me to seek RZA, and tell him that he'd be picking RZA up from Kuantan. I rushed to RZA's house, to see him sitting next to the drain, already in tears. So we (RZA, HOD, RZA's housemate and I) drove again to KL. He was crying all the way. Went to the morgue in HKL, and her body was already prepared for the burial.
It was truly a sad experience for me. Two deaths in less in one week. But I'm sure what my two friends felt were much more profound than mine. My condolence to my friends and Al-Fatihah to both Allahyarham.
