The Call?
Short note: On 7 April 2008, my grandmother passed away. I miss you, Atuk.
Dad and Mom are still away in Mecca doing their Umrah(think of it as a pre-visit of Mecca before performing the Haj) and are due back tomorrow. Interestingly, Dad conveyed this interesting story to my brother yesterday night. This was their fourth day of Umrah, if memory serves me correctly.
Dad had just started reciting prayers for my late grandma (the Umrah and Haj can be performed on a "representative" basis for deceased friends/family members) when he suddenly got a call on his cellphone. Of course, he didn't answer it because he was in the midst of reciting prayers. But then after that, he checked the number that called him and he was surprised to see that it came from my late grandmother's house, where the maid was staying alone. He called back to check on why the maid had called his cellphone. But here's the thing: The maid did not call my dad and neither did she know what his cellphone number was. Furthermore, there was nobody else in the house at the time.
So, who rang my dad? I guess we'll never know.
p/s: I don't know if Dad would ever admit to this, but I'm pretty sure that if there's one thing he regrets about Atuk's passing is that she never got the chance to see our new house. Her health had become too frail, and we literally couldn't take her out of the house without the aid of an ambulance. While Atuk and Dad didn't seem to have a very talkative mother-and-son relationship(Dad's a man of few words), deep down I could tell that Dad loved Atuk very, very, very much and by the way Atuk looked at Dad, I knew that she was extremely proud of him and very happy for him. *sigh*.