pak cu @ shahidan @ md haidar yasin

mak reciting the Yasin. on her right is akak

pak cu n mak cu - mac '12 turki


there his body lies, and yet he is no longer there..

for the last few nites, he was having difficulty breathing. but it would subside after a couple of hours or so.. but last nite it was different. pak cu told mak cu he couldn't breathe, and asked her to gently stroke his back. normally when mak cu did this, he would be at ease, and fall asleep. last nite when mak cu stroke his back, she could sense that it was unusual. pak cu's legs became cold, and there he lied by mak cu side, breathing slowly, but heavily, and you could see his chest rising awkwardly. and finally, some time at a quarter past two, he passed away.

pak cu as he was known to me, shahidan the name my mum called him, md haidar yasin the name he was born with. 
everytime i think of pak cu, i would definitely remember his smile, his laughter. he was very generous with both. the earliest memory of my time with him when i was yet to be ten. together with ida and nazam, we would play with pak cu's children, haryati alia haris n harman, at his place in sungai petani. 
i still remember the time when he took us, the children la of course, plus our mums, and atok kedah, to pantai merdeka for a picnic.. the same goes when we first visited penang: botanical garden, snake temple and feringgi.. peh! those were the days, kan.. 
and five years ago when he was diagnosed with kidney problem, he insisted not to undergo the treatment. it was like he was content, and that he believed if his time were to come then, so be it. yet he remained strong for the remaining years of his life. i went to see him when he was first diagnosed, afraid that he would die soon and i wouldn't get the chance to see him again.
mak cu told me that pak cu never wanted to be in the hospital. though the children insisted that he do so, he never gave in. the reason pak cu gave was that if he's there in the hospital, he would miss mak cu's gentle touch, which he couldn't accept. and so last nite he got her touch, right till the end.

pak cu, you'll be sorely missed..