Tuesday, January 19, 2010

My grandmother.

today is my nini bini's birthday. she's 72. i wish i could have been there but this is where I am but InsyaAllah that time will come. anyway i don't know but i just feel like writing about her. well appropriately so, it is her birthday. and also she's like easily the strongest woman i know.

she hasn't changed since the first day i met her. obviously i was too young to gather the first few years worth of memories but i know she was there the entire time. she used to tell me all the time about how my mother left us at her house when she went to work and my mom would ask if i was asleep or otherwise. and then she would cry. she would cry talking about my mother. and then i'd cry too. but i loved it. i loved how she told me little stories about my mother. how else would i have at least a trail of her memories.

so there was me. there was my sister. my brother. my father. and she took care of us when my father couldn't. and there was my aunt. there was my cousin. and she took them in with nothing but love too. and there were my other aunts. and my uncles. and she paid as much attention to them too. and there was her husband. my grandfather certainly is not the easiest man to live or deal with and I mean that in the least degrading way possible. but she did not waver in her responsibilities. to this day, she attends to him gracefully. and i love her so much for it. she complains, yes indeed she does. but the sincerity is there. cause her love is unconditional. to all of her family.

and then a decade. marriages and more kids. also we grew up. but i feel like she treats us the same way as she did 20 years ago. and then there are my new cousins. they have not missed the experience of childhood that my grandmother granted me and my siblings and my cousins. Alhamdulillah. one of the things i happen to love about her is her love for her grandchildren. i see it everytime. and i certainly feel it too.

i know she's tired. she takes care of us for this long but she just doesn't know how to not to. and that's one of the things which makes her amazing. she has a lot of patience in dealing with a lot of things that this family had put her through! both good and bad. and no matter how this family has made mistakes, she let them back in. she welcomed them with open arms not with fury. her tears are delicate. as strong as she is, she's a slave of Allah, just like the rest of us, continually tested and her faith remains. as she also keeps reminding us that nothing is as important as prayers and our submission to Allah.

and more of her advice. her teachings. what i've learnt from my grandmother is surely priceless. she always says to me that she may not know what's going on in school and stuff, but she surely can work the kitchen. and indeed she does! so extremely very well, anything she makes i will eat because she makes the best food. yeah, my grandmother did not go to school but she's definitely got a good mind. and she is so hilarious, we totally got the sarcastic genes from her. well nini laki can get sarky too so I guess both, so they can be such riots. Teehee and i know that i cannot repay her for gratitude. the whole family can't. but Allah can. I pray that Allah grants her the rewards of Jannah. and praise be to Allah to have blessed us with such a woman figure. if it weren't for Allah, i would not have her in my life and how my.. our lives would have gone differently if that was the case. Syukran Allah. Syukran for nini bini.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

:') this is such a great post. well-written and I can definitely feel the love. aku ani lagi so sensitive when it comes to grandmothers hehehe. but yeh i can feel the love. fo shiz. :)

semoga Allah memakbulkan doa2mu and im praying for the best dunia akhirat for your whole family, amin.