"Kalau mak meninggal..."

I was in the office busy preparing slides during lunch time when my mum called. "Mak Long dah meninggal kat Seremban, rumah Abang Nyai(my cousin). Awak nak balik rumah kul brapa?"

I was so shocked and paused for a long time before I replied "Innalillah...nanti eta confirm dengan mak balik". "OK". End of conversation.

Unsure what to do, I asked my colleagues. "Makcik saya meninggal.. macammana ek?" I heard myself asking the dumbest question of the day. They suggested me to go back home and they would let my boss know once she came back from lunch. So I just emailed with whatever I have finished with the slides, hoping my teammates would be OK without me in the meeting.

Eventhough I may never be her fave niece, Mak Long will always be one of my fave aunties. She was so full of love, kind-hearted and soft-spoken. She always greeted me and my family with our favorite kuih like tapai and kuih koci whenever she knew we would come to pay her a visit. I will surely lepak longer at her house every time I went back to kampung.

That evening, me and my mum were heading to our kampung in Johor since we were told she would be buried there after Isya. In the car, we discussed a couple of things that relate to Islam when a person dies such as the will and inheritance distribution in Islam, the appropriate place and time to bury and the journey to the afterlife.

And that was when my mum told me "Kalau mak meninggal, tak payah tunggu lama2 atau nak tunggu Fara(my sis who's still studying in Indon) balik Malaysia, terus tanam jek..." I hate it when she kept on saying that these past few years. It just makes me sad. So I just kept silence and rather not respond to her. Sometimes I even changed the topic. Tak baik kan?

Malam tu, sedih dan sebak masa mendoakan kesejahteraan Mak Long masa solat jenazah. Eta doakan semoga roh Mak Long dicucuri rahmat dan berada dikalangan orang yang soleh dan baik2. Alfatihah. Amin.

Something to share: "When one dies, everything in this earthly life is left behind, and there are no more opportunities to perform acts of righteousness and faith. The Prophet Muhammad once said that there are three things, however, which may continue to benefit a person after death: charity given during life which continues to help others, knowledge from which people continue to benefit, and a righteous child who prays for him or her."