"MY MUM AND HER IMPORTANT NOTHINGS"

Written by: Director of Public Works, Tn Hj Ir Zuraimi Hj Sabki

"Excuse me sir, your mum calls", a constant reminder from my secretary amidst my busy day. Sometimes in exasperation I would exclaimed, "What important nothings has she got to tell me today?"

As months turned into years, this routine never changed. Ever so now with her deteriorating health, a need to undergo dialysis every other day of the week has depressed her more so.

She has never fully recovered from my dad's demise more than a decade ago from lung cancer.

As I looked at her now, a frail woman I can't help remembering the days when she was our tower of strength, when she was our solutions provider in all manner of problems, when she was I know always hoping and praying that her children will turn up all right.

I could still vividly remember the joy when we as children always await the once a week chicken meal that she would meticulously prepare for us. Hari Raya has always been a time for her to scrounge whatever savings that she had in order for us to have the new clothing that young children always crave for on that joyous day each year.

Her pride knows no bounds if we achieved something eventful no matter how trivial it may be if viewed in the worldly scheme of things.

As I looked at her sad demeanour only now I can evoke such gratitude of emotions, only now that i feel the sacrifices that she did for her children. Only now did we realise that only parents can offer you unconditional love.

I used to resent her simplicity, I used to resent her gullibility in viewing the world.

Such resentments can be understandable as we grew up trying to grope with the realities of a complex and unforgiving world .

However only now did I can grasp that parents love and a mother's love for one's child has no prerequisite in this world in its simplicity and sincerity, a feeling that is boundless in her concern for you as she viewed all that you did as important to her.

It is her "important nothings" that help to shape our lives, that helps to shape our character, that helps to shape our view of the world.

A mum's "important nothings" are and will be the only things that we will cherish as one day she will pass on.

To my mum, as I saw you weak from the ravages of the dialysis treatments, I can only ask and hope for your forgiveness in dismissing your everyday concern on whether I have eaten my lunch, on whether I have done my prayers or on whether I have made that call to your grandson as important nothings as I coined them for these daily trivialities are what family life is about.

I now realise these "important nothings" are what makes us cherish ever more our presence in this blessed world, and to you my mum please continue with these and I promise you I will no longer dismiss them as "important nothings" but as "jewels from a great mother". I love u mum.