New Year Eve's Call

I was driving home back from work on New Year Eve when I received a call. It was my mom's, I thought it was the usual "Happy New Year" call. It was not.

I didn't have any plan. I am that old lady who drove back home from work on midnight of 1st January. My friend, Aisha, was the old lady who refused boring company so left her supposedly New Year eve celebration friends to go home, and another friend, Dell, was an old lady who was already sleeping when midnight struck.

So I decided we should make our own party by the mamak, so me and Aisha decided we should crashed Dell's place with teh tarik and roti canai.

Only second after plans were made, we were already on our way. My mum called.

My cousin passed away in a very tragic incident at KB Airport. He - altogether with his wife and their 3 yo daughter - were queuing for their flight back to KL when he collapsed and passed away right away.

I was driving, I had no idea what was going on. I remembered stopping by the highway for a good 15 minutes calling all my brothers, cousins and aunties (because mother was already unreachable) to confirm the news.

It was true.

We continued the 'party', me and Aisha at the Mamak struggling to find the first flight back to KB tomorrow morning on midnight with fireworks and teh tarik and my mind was all over the place. That was also the night when all the banks decided to have maintenance and OTP failed to arrive at the assigned telephone number for credit card purchasing.

I stayed up all night praying that there'll still be available seats in the first flight tomorrow.

There were. I walked in to buy the airlines tickets and just our rezeki, even minutes before the flight, they were still selling the promo price. The flight was atleast half-filled with my family only. Thanks Malindo Airways.

Whoever ever imagined they would spend their first day of the year at the forensic department and cemetery, but knowing that each and every presence of us would actually contribute strength and courage to my cousin's family, we would travel the world any day any time.

It was not a happy start for a new year, but we believed that my cousin is in a better place. He was a great person, all the wallposts on his facebook proved so. I believed his wife and family is so proud of him.

Death has never done any justice to anybody, especially not to a little girl who is only 3. But he will live forever in all those great stories we all will keep on telling this baby, and she will grow up knowing she had a great man as a father.

If you have a minute, send your Al-Fatihah to this great man, Shahiran Vijay Abdullah. We all will miss you dearly.

PS: Thanks Saa. Zac dok tahu gane kalu Saa takdok :(