This is an essay, a #throwback post I've posted a very long time ago in my previous blog and it's been published in Stuff@school. So this is a copy-pasted version. Hope you'll enjoy reading this story.

 

There is an old Indian woman in our school. She is probably in her mid-60s. She has always been seen strolling in the school compound, talking to other parents and teachers, reading newspapers or stare blankly when she is bored. She's been here everyday for nearly 5 years. However, she is not a teacher nor a school cleaner.

Who is she? What is she doing inside our school everyday? These are probably a few of the questions most of the students here thought of.

I did not really care about her existence or who she is until I started to talk to her two years ago. It was our Physical Education class when my friend and I decided to skip the class because the weather was just too hot. We sat on a bench nearby the the field and started to chit chat happily. I remembered when she walked towards us, I gave her a wide smile. However, I do not remember how we started the conversation with her. In order to be more familiar, she wanted us to call her ‘Pati’ which means mistress in Tamil.

When I asked her why she was here, she told us that she has a grandson who studying in this school. However, he's unfortunately diagnosed with an unknown illness that makes him disable. He is unable to do any basic tasks such as eating, walking properly and carrying heavy school bag. Because of that, she started to follow him to school regardless of the weather and her own condition ever since he was in primary school so that she could take good care of him.

Everyday, she needs to feed him during the recess time, helps him to carry his heavy bag and provides him with assistance when he wants to go to the toilet. She's also there to prevent him from being bullied by his friends. It is not an easy tasks especially for someone her age.

Then we asked her, “Don’t you ever feel tired or frusfrated with this kind of life?” She answered with the edges of mouth slightly lifted, “No, I don’t. Maybe it’s because of the power of family love that gave me the strength to move on,”. We are deeply touched by those words and we really admire her selfless sacrifices to do anything for the sake of her family members. Her story also makes me realise about my parent’s sacrifice to raise my family. It almost brings me to tears thinking about it. After she shared about her life, she taught us some common yet simple Tamil words. We laughed at each other because of our inaccurate pronunciations. Our ‘Tamil class’ did not last long because the Physical Education class was only 45 minutes. However, we did learn a lot of values from her.

From that day onwards, I started to give more attention to her existance in school. I noticed that she will be looking quietly at her grandson who's studying in the classroom from outside, accompany and comfort him when he seemed to be jealous of other students who are enjoying themselves running and sweating in the field during the Annual Sports Day or Cross Country event. This shows how great his desire to be involved in it. Sometimes, I felt pity for him.

This shows that family is much more important than wealth. Our family members will always be there to help us when we face difficulties or in trouble waters, and no one will get left behind or forgotten. Lastly, blessings from me to that big boy of Pati and “Dey, don’t let her worry about you anymore, okay!”

*

This is an outdated post, as I said. I met Pati in school during this past holiday when I went for my Library duty and she gave me a heartwarming hug. She shaked my hand, thanking me for writing an article for her and accompanying her during my leisure time in school and chatter about just anything. I love every moment seeing her delighted expression when she talked about her beloved grandson. There was once my Malay classmate told me that 'Mr Grandson' confessed to liking her and gave her strawberries. I then told Pati about this incident and she got really nervous and insisted that he won't do that. In the end, it was verified that it's actually a misunderstanding, it was his friend who asked him to do that. From this I can see how much she loves and pampers him. 

I've known her for 4 years, and she's gone through too much. Her husband's just passed away in a few months ago, and she's recently been diagnosed with heart disease. Eventually she can take a long rest after he finished his SPM examination. His dad is also a kind person. He was always smiling at me when he's in school waiting to fetch them back home.

I'm touched, can't really describe the fuzzy sentiment in my mind. But what I'm certain is that it inspires me to take the initiative to become a better person, to reach out and help more people. I'm on my way to spread more positive energy. I'm a girl on mission now, gambateh : )