After the ‘Tastefully Food & Beverage Expo 2013″ event yesterday, I passed by this building enroute back.
What is so significant about this building? It brings back childhood memories. At the top floor of this building, is hostel for members of ‘spare parts association of Malaysia’. Hostel is very basic. Common bathroom, common kitchen, but most importantly it is clean – clean linen and floors.
So why do I say it brings back memories? In my younger days, our family was not doing that well. We weren’t starving but we couldn’t afford luxuries. Thus, whenever we made a trip to KL (our family is from Kuantan, Pahang), we would stay here. We had to climb 3 flights of floor to get to the hostel. At that time, the place was surrounded by ‘lalang’ (wild grass)
I remember there was one time, my late maternal grandmother wanted to come to KL with us. She suffered from stroke many years back and thus, only her right side of her body was fully functional. Her left side doesn’t cooperate that well. We told her that we are putting up at this place and we were worried that she had difficulty walking up the flights of stairs. She insisted on coming along.
Upon reaching the building, she said she had to pee. It was a Sunday. No office was open. There was no toilet. She said she would tolerate the flights of stairs, and pee in the toilet at the hostel. While walking up the stairs, she couldn’t control her bladder anymore. Her ‘sarong’ (cloth wrapped around waist which reaches the floor. That is her normal attire), was drenched in urine.
When she reached the top floor, the poor lady’s legs and sarong was all wet. She mentioned she tried very hard to control her bladder, but couldn’t anymore. She was ashamed of herself. Mom just washed her sarong at the sink, and we gently told her, that we were sorry she had to endure the flight of stairs, as we couldn’t afford a better place to stay in KL. Of course as years went by, we could afford better accommodation, and she got to enjoy them.
Looking back, the reason why I titled this ‘Just Keep Walking’ is because, I believe that is life. Dad just keep on doing what he was doing, building and hoping a better future for the family. Of course, while doing so, he ensured whatever he was doing was inline with his values and principles, ie integrity and sheer hardwork.
I guess these are the values which I inherited from my Dad. I am a strong believer in honesty and nothing is free in this world. This is always an opportunity cost attached to it. However, when I strongly believe in something, I will continue to soldier on, as it is just a matter of time the fruits of labour will materialize.
Now that we are doing much better, and can afford better things in life, sadly, Dad is not able to enjoy travelling, since Mom is very immobile. We are doing what we can, to make her comfortable. It is indeed very sad, to see a loved one, slowly degenerating and her soul is trapped in a wasted body.
Well that is life. We can plan all we want to plan, but it is up to God to dispose our plan. Life is indeed a journey