Sunday, April 18, 2010

Time flew real fast. My last posting was almost two months ago. It seems time is becoming shorter while the list of things grows longer. Indeed I remember one of the thing that keeps coming up to my mind is the fact that 'Man will always have more things to do than the time they have' or something to that effect. I don't know, there may be many people in this world who have more time than they need. Never mind, they may be the unfortunate ones who have to struggle with life just to make ends meet. Even then I supposed they will still find it hard to get or earn what they want in 24 hours.

Anyway, one of the many things I had to do the past few months was to take care of my old folks. It is indeed a very emotional experience trying to do the right thing acceptable to them especially and those around me. There were times when a meeting point will not make one party happy while at other times they were quite a smooth sailing. The bottom line is one has to be really patient, passionate and thoughtful in taking care of them. Sometimes I wonder whether I have done enough by them. I hope The Almighty will always know how best I tried to discharge my filial duty to them.

Being in their eighties means love is very much different from what we know today. Love is not demonstrated but is translated into their hard works to get the best out for their kids. Their love knows no boundary to the extent that they may at times appear to spill over to the unwelcome territory. Their outlook on life is rather simplistic though they very much understand how complicated life has become to their kids having own families. Indeed one can talk a lot about the unseen love between these two generations separated by evolution of human race.

In spite of all the shortcomings they ought to be treated with real care. Their sensitive hearts should not be hurt in anyway less it may not recover in time. In my quiet moments I could not stop wondering how tough my father was. He was an unsung hero during the short period between the surrender of Japan in World War II and the return of the British forces. My remote village was under attack by the 'Bintang Tiga' Army. The battle was fought hard with casualties on both sides. I lost my grandpa and other relatives. Apparently my father was shot at by the enemy. He survived with bullet hole marks on his shirt. The sad thing is that I only came to know about this recently, when I could no longer enjoy relishing the memory with my father. Looking at how he is now I have missed the real chance to get the story first hand. This will however remain in my memory.....

Having said that I was still lucky to have been able to spend a short time with him just a few weeks ago. I took him to a Hypermarket just to get him to choose something he would like. He did and we returned home happy though I knew he would have enjoyed it better had it been a couple of years earlier.

To those who still have the opportunity please do not let your long list of things get in your way to be with your old folks.....