Gone but not forgoten

This entry is about someone who was poor in wealth but rich in heart. Memory of her caught me on our way back from work yesterday. And both Cik Kentang & I agreed that she was one of the nicest people that we ever knew.

She was known as Kak Ton. I met Kak Ton few years back when i was working with my previous company in Kampar, Perak. She was our company's (and also a next door's company) tea lady and she was one of a few local people that I befriend. .

Kak Ton stayed in Batu Gajah, and everyday she will commute from Batu Gajah to Kampar at about 20-30 km distance to work place. Kak Ton and her husband could not afford to rent a proper place, let alone to own a house but I never ever heard she complained about it. They rent a very small place next to a small mosque in Batu Gajah town and Kak Ton and husband helped to take care of the mosque. I have been to their place once and I was shocked to see how simple their life was. Kak Ton has two teenage sons and even though Kak Ton & her husband can barely afford their simple life, but they manage to give proper education to their sons. Her eldest is studying in UITM and the youngest was studying in Sekolah Teknik Ipoh. Sometimes she told us that she felt sad as she could not afford to provide her sons things that other parents had. She was extremely fond of her kids (same case to her husband), she always smiles when she talked about them and I could feel how close they were to each other. I believe her husband and sons also love her very much.

Kak Ton was a soft spoken person. I never heard she raised her voice to anyone. She never commented bad things about others. I believe it was not because of her position in the company but it was her character. She was purely kind and she never misses her prayers. She treated Cik Kentang and I just like her own daughter even though she was just a few years older than us. She made us feel accepted in a foreign place . I believe most of us love her. When she heard that Encik D fell sick, she was worried as much as we do.

Even though Kak Ton was loved by almost everybody, there was someone from next door's company who seems to hate Kak Ton. Kak Ton was bullied very badly by this very young administration lady. This lady tried hard to make Kak Ton to feel worthless. She spread around bad things which Kak Ton never did. And it happened to be heard in our company too. I don’t really know what her intention was but I believe she did it because of jealousy.

I was amazed how Kak Ton managed to bear with those provocations. There are times that she almost resigned from the company due to the rumors spreaded about her but the only reason why she stayed was because her family could not afford to live with her husband single salary.

About a year after I met Kak Ton, she was diagnosed with brain tumor. I felt guilty as we should have sensed it earlier because Kak Ton always had bad migraines. Maybe we miss the hint due to the extremely hot weather in Perak, so we thought it was due to the heat. Kak Ton had been advised to go for brain operation to remove the tumor. Kak Ton and family were scared to death, and they thought of not going for it. I did not blame her. She was not well educated, so does her husband. Funding was another issue for the family.

Cik Kentang, some other friends and I managed to convince her and later she managed to get the funding from SOCSO. Finally, Kak Ton went for the operation at HUKM. I was back to KL by the time Kak Ton was hospitalized and Kak Ton’s husband called me once to inform me that Kak Ton is in the hospital. I was too busy with my new job and also busy commuting from KL to Perak to pay Encik D visits at Ipoh Hospital to be able for me to pay Kak Ton at least a visit. I feel bad until today.. I was so selfish to pay a visit to a someone who cared a lot about me.. who always let us know how much she loves us.

Then, I managed to pay Kak Ton a visit after she was discharged from hospital. Kak Ton was very happy to see me and Cik Kentang. We were informed that Kak Ton is going for another operation to remove the remaining tumor. I remembered that I told Kak Ton to ask her husband to inform me when the time comes. I remember that I hugged her when we were leaving. But, maybe due to the difficulties the family later faced, her husband forgot to inform me. I received news from a former colleague that Kak Ton passed away after the second operation. I called her husband and I was told that Kak Ton did not managed to fight after been coma for 2 weeks. It was a very sad moment and until today, i still wonder whether it was a right advice to be given to her to go for the operation?

My only regret is that I was not able to pay her visits when she was hospitalized the first time and during her second time where it happened to be her last.

I‘ve learnt from Kak Ton a few lessons about Life. There is nothing small about Life and Life is not measured by wealth or how successful we are in our career but it is measured by our heart.

I wish to be like her.. or half like her.