Our Parents

A short message (sms) came in one morning while I was getting ready to work reads, "Sapa nak ganti K.Yan lepas 21hb ni". It was from my elder sister who was now in kampung to take care after my parents. Ouch!! I don't have an answer for that. I did not immediately reply the message. Not because I was too busy to reply, but because I do not have an answer for that. Not until now. It took me sometime to have the courage to reply the mail, but, with shame, "???? Ina memang tak boleh cuti dah. Ada meeting 21hb, 22hb dan 23 hb. Bawa mak mai Shah Alam?". That was my answer. Shame. Why shame? Because I could not allocate a piece of time to go back and take care of them. I was too busy with my worldly task. The best I could offer is to bring them over to my house. Even with that, I will not be around during the day time to look after them.

The saying like, "Ibu seorang mampu menjaga anak yang ramai, tapi anak yang ramai belum tentu dapat menjaga ibu yang seorang", keep coming to my ears. I was in dilemma. Between husband & family and parents, my priority has to be my husband whom has delegate the task to look after the kids to me - that is as required by Islam. But as a daughter, I feel obliged to take care of them. My brothers??? Yes, they are truly the one who are responsible to take care of the parents as their jannah is within a blessing of a mother, but can they take up the responsibility that also requires feminine's touch. Anyway, I salute my eldest brother, Abang, as he has sacrifices a lot in taking of the parents. No doubt, he has fulfilled the responsibility but of course with some limitation.

Looking into this I beginning to think .... our parents wanted us to be successful in our carrier, but being successful requires lots of our time which limits the time that we could spend with our parents. I am sure this is not something that are hoping for .... Ya Allah forgive me.

Looking forward, I wonder what will become when I am at their age???? With only 3 kids??? Lets don't think about it and just let's pray and hope that everything will be OK as ALLAH knows what is best for us. I am sure what we are facing now is a test from Allah on us all.

wallahua'lam.