Mother How Are You Today?
Mother How Are You Today?
Mother how are you today?
This is a note from your daughter
with me everything is ok
oh, mother how are you today?
EVERY TIME I listen to the song, I often burst into tears. I wonder how my mother is today. Maybe she is singing the same song for me from above with a different title. My mom liked to sing, except she only sang this traditional Malay song that made all my siblings and me giggled, yet sometimes bored us. Funny is that now we miss that song a lot. My eldest sister even sings the same song to her children who fortunately like it that they sing it pretty often as well.
Mom was a strict mother that she instructed us all to sit and eat together at dinner at seven sharp! For she thought that was the only time we could face each other and discuss or tell our days. Good Point. She would refuse to give me allowance to buy some food, but willingly gave me one to buy books. She adored books (my Dad also) that she gave every thing for her children to do the same. I guess I know where my passion for books really comes from.
One thing she despised was lying. If she found out that we gave her a lie, she would give us a 2-hour preach on how bad lying is (and any other preaching stuffs, of course). 2 hours? Well, 2 hours was lucky enough, as it often took 3 hours!
Yesterday, when I was at work, I remembered it was her birthday. I stupidly forgot to visit and bring flowers to her at her grave, her ‘homeland’ now….Out of guilt, I brought of a birthday cake home, in hope that at least some of my family would be at home to ‘celebrate’ Mom’s birthday. My nephew and niece were so excited that they kept telling and repeating to everyone that the cake was for eyang mama…the grandmother they never met.
I miss you Mama…so much.
August 4th, 2005 at 8:28 am
I tried hard to hold my tears reading the above. You remember most of how Mom is, though I was the Mother’s Boy. I’m so ashamed. What I most remember was how Mom touched my stomach when it hurts. The warmth of her love healed the stomach-ache and made me feel lucky to have a mother like Mom. Lets not quarrel anymore on anything, cause I know (in my spiritual contact with Mom & Dad) they’re watching us and feel sad everytime we have a fight. Everything you wrote above reminds me how special Mom was, and how lucky we are having Animah Slamet as our mother. She’s godsend. Thank you, God, may you love Mom & Dad like the way they love us. Amen…