My Friend's Loss

Last night I hardly got any sleep. Daria refused to sleep and insisted on playing instead. Remember she only went to bed at 10.30pm last night? She woke up at 1.30am, then again at 3.30am and then again at 6am. Then she totally refused to sleep again. OMG...I had already started to forget what it was like to wake up every 2 hours. The thing is, it wasn't because she was hungry or wet. She just wanted to play.

I hope there will not be any repeat of last night tonight. I could hardly function at work today. It's bad enough I have a tender report to finish up ASAP. Grrr...

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Today I visited a friend. Her stepson passed away this morning. He had died due to a brain tumor. He was 6 years old.

Now this friend of mine, we used to be close. Then life happened and we drifted apart. We meet once in awhile on occasions; she came to see me when I delivered Dania, I visited her when she had her 3rd son. Visits were few and far apart, despite her living in Shah Alam, just a stone throw away from my parents house.

She married a Singaporean Pakistani and became his 3rd wife. While he was still married to the first two. OK, before any of you judge..let me tell you this: it works for her. Somehow, the whole polygamy thing...sharing a husband, staying in the same house with all the other wives...yeah, it's mind boggling and even I'm still trying to come with terms with it all, even after all this time. But this post isn't about that and is not meant to undermine her life, so let's move on.

Her late stepson is about the same age as her eldest boy, so naturally she was the one who breastfed the boy too. Kira jadi ibu susuan la member aku tu. See, harmony...but then again, moving on. Apparently the boy was having trouble concentrating in school and had slight hand tremors. The family took him for a check up and it was then they got the news that he had a big tumor at the base of his spine (behind the neck). It was untreatable since there were too many blood veins involved. This was in March. The boy went for radiation therapy and for a moment, the tumor shrunk to half its size. Then in July it became aggressive. A few weeks after that, the boy lost feeling in his left side. During his last days, he was unresponsive and had medication pumped in 24 hours to prevent him from having fits and choking on his own saliva.

He passed away around 730am today. Innalillahiwatainnahirajiun..

I almost didn't go and see my friend because of the insane workload I had but I'm glad my other friends insisted in dragging me there. For one thing I got to see my friend after so long. And also, I got a reminder about how fragile life is and how we should always cherish the ones we love.

To Y, be strong. I hope we'll meet again soon. Love you.