Happy Birthday Yam

Today 2^nd of May is a very special day. It’s my daughter’s birthday Maryam Hazeeqah. She is 15. Yam was born in Colchester, England during the time I was struggling to finish my PhD. I remember clearly the day I drove Umi to Colchester Hospital for the delivery, leaving the rest of my kids at home under the care of Aqeelah my eldest 8-year-old daughter. Be good okay, Abah will come back as soon as possible and shut the door without waiting for the response. Yam could not wait to come out and see the world. We were at the car boot sale earlier in the morning and everything was okay. But by the time we arrived home Umi knew it was time and I tried to remember the drill that we went through a few days back;the bag, the car and the kids. Grab the bag, run the car and take care of the kids. It was a short drive to the hospital but that drive was also the most exciting drive ever; Yam is coming. I was there in the delivery room holding Umi as she pushed Yam out to the world. Without a fuss, Yam cried her heart out leaving Umi tired and exhausted. I was tired too trying to figure out how to go on from here. At the time my PhD was in a complete mess, Allah had sent this beautiful little angel to say that everything will be sorted out eventually.... don’t worry about it. Life is strange sometime and it teaches you to deal with it in a very strange way. In a few short months afterwards I was able to put together my thesis and started the submission process. With this little angel there were strength, hope and determination for her Abah to go on with life. I wrapped up the thesis and sent out for submission; disregard of my supervisor’s comments that my thesis was weak and could not hold even one argument that I put forward. But every time I went home and held my little Yam, I saw nothing wrong with my work and felt completely satisfied with everything. I said good bye to everyone and finished packing up my stuff ... I was going to take Yam home to Malaysia. Later that year in  1999 we were heading home with a stopover in Mecca for umrah. I took Umi and Yam to kiss hajarul aswad. It was my first and last time to kiss the sacred stone.

Happy Birthday Yam. You are always the angel in my life. We love you  so much.

From Abah & Umi