This entry is specially dedicated to my dear grandnephew Irfan and even though it might be a wee bit late in being posted, it is nonetheless no less insignificant.
Congratulations to you Irfan, for not only getting 5As in the UPSR recently, but most of all for your courage, redha and tawakkal. Yes dear, you are brave enough and strong enough to withstand the exam even under the most difficult circumstances imaginable. Circumstances that no one would ever want to experience themselves, circumstances that no one would ever wish for it to happen to someone as young as you. Only Allah knows how you felt on that fateful day, only Allah knows.
It could not have been easy entering the exam hall knowing that your dearest father had just died the night before. Thoughts of his jenazah being driven all the way from Johor must have intruded from time to time while you were answering the questions, yet you managed to hold on. The feeling of sadness, confusion, helplessness and perhaps anger too, must have been so overpowering, so great, it could have crippled a lesser person, yet you persevered.
The last two weeks before the exam was a difficult time indeed, ever since the tragedy of the small plane crash which resulted in him being hospitalised far away in Johor. The fact that the incident happened in the holy month of Ramadhan and so close to Hari Raya, somehow made it even worse. But you were strong, you were indeed a pillar of strenght to your three younger sisters. You had to... you had no choice... your dear mother had to be with your father in this time of need.
But your strenght crumbled the night he died, anyone would have too.... You didn't want to sit for the exam the following day, you didn't care anymore, you just wanted to cry. But people cared, neighbours, family friends and your own teachers all came to give you support and to talk to you, and you finally relented. That night, you slept with his kain pelikat as your blanket, hugging it close to your body, wishing that it was his warmth instead.
Dear Irfan, losing someone you love is never easy. How I know it.... But you did well, in fact you were able to bear it all and come out of it with flying colours. Your dearest father would have been so proud of you. I hope that you will grow to be a stronger person and be a responsible son your parents would have wanted you to be, insyaAllah.
