THE TREASURED SHEAFER BALL PEN

When all were packed, we left our house to go to the City Campus for registration. The journey must have been an exciting one for Hafiz and so it was for me. Tasha and Diyanah came along. My third child is going to the university. He did very well in his exam to earn such a place. Well done, son! The best student in his former school was a girl with 12A1. That might have earned her a place in a university abroad. Before he received his UPU results, he was accepted into UNITEN. So we went to pay for his registration to secure the placement. Just incase his applications through UPU, failed, he could persue his study there. I told him, should he get a place in any other universities, he was free to choose. When another offer came, from UTM, he made his choice.

Dressed in a pressed long sleeve maroun shirt and long pants, he looked so smart and matured for a first year student. Some new friends he met, thought that he was working prior to registring into the university. The registration started with a briefing given to the students and their parents. It was some useful information disbursed for the parents to know and for the students to follow. It was a long process of going from one office into another, paying the fees, getting the T- Shirts for the orientation week, getting the hostel room and all sorts of information for the orientation week.

Once the room key was given, we went up with all the belongings which not to forget among others were pails, hangers, shoes and books besides the luggage full of clothes. We met his room mate and his parents who were there earlier. His room mate lived very nearby. His parents said, he could go home every week end. Jokingly Hafiz told them, " I would only go home in three years time (once graduated).

Carefully sorting out, everything were placed on the floor. We opened the locker ( a tall cupboard with no locks), dusted it and started to unpack. Clothes, personal belongings, books and AND...something struck me HARD!!!!!!!!!My heart flipped. I caught a glimpse of something familiar. It was carefully placed on the top shelf of his locker right inside as though it was so precious.

It was given to him five years back and he did not even use it, perhaps he treasured it so much or he was afraid it might have got lost in school. He must have kept it in the house all those years while in boarding school. Perhaps it was the only gift ever received from me for his success in all those years??? I could not remember. I could recall his sister had given him an expensive watch for "getting" a place in that boarding school.

The Sheafer Ball Pen was in a red box. It was a special gift from his mom to him. It touched my heart deeply thinking that he had carefully kept it away all these years, without using it until he entered this university. He brought it along? It was meant to be used, right? The ball pen was an expensive ball pen to him. When I asked him "Didn't you use it all these while?" He said " No". I did not ask further for his reasons but deep down I felt he had tresured his mom's gift so much. It must have meant a lot to him. Tears secretly filled my eyes. Never have I thought my son was so grateful for this little gift. I brushed away my tears with a heart that was slightly crushed and touched.

This time I have actually bought him another set of writing pens and all. It was a boxed gift. Again, by the time I am writing this, it already aged three years. But the much treasured Sheafer Ball Pen was brought along too. He took it along with him although it was five years old. But it looked asnew because it never have left its red box and perhaps was never really used. He may have tried writing with it but decided to keep it away until such time when it was ready to be used.

A few months later, I asked him if the ink were still there, and he said, "The ink is finished". So I bought him a refill. Three years have passed since the day I saw the then five year old ball pen in his locker. Meaning today, it has reached its eighth year of being with its owner, the faithful and grateful Hafiz, my son.

This part was edited on the 18th May 2008

Mummy has treasured so many things too, Hafiz. The day CS was performed on me to let Hafiz out into this world and grew up, was the most unforgettable and most treasured event of my life! Wednesday the 20th of May 1987, Prof. Rechagan (the best Gynae in UH) met me on my normal ante-natal check up. I was sent up on to the first floor for ECG test. The young Chinese Lady showed the graph which I did not instantly quite understand. It looked so deep like a very wide frying pan. Prof. broke the news even before I managed to find a chair to sit. By the time he finished, I found this dark blue hilly bucket chair and slumped on it. Shock razed through my spine! What a word, it was like a taboo to me... Two days later, much to my wonder if you were perfectly born, healthy, hungry or, or, or racing through my mind. No one turned up by my bedside, for me to ask! Weird. I did not know what had actually happened. Finally, Prof. turned up and with his handsome smile, leisurely told me about 'foetal distress". What?

This cute little boy was full of life and zest. Little did he know, how did he come to this earth. He missed the "early" mother's milk that contained colostrum. Never mind all that, alhamdulillah what matters most was he was born alive. He came out blue and was in the incubator for those hours on ends. A miracle baby? Yes, he was. The night before, I was holding this book on pregnancy but missed the page on "foetal distress". The chart that was given to me was to monitor and to count the baby's movement up to the count of 24?? But there was no warnings or reminders of any "excessive movements"!

Hafiz, as much as you treasured IT, I have also treasured every little bit of memories that is still fresh in my mind since 1999....all the happenings... The bitter and happy memories of which you and I knew too well to forget.

Here we are, 20th May 2008...Happy Birthday Hafiz. May Allah Blesses, Guides, Protects, Showers you with Hidayah, Taufiq, Nur Illahi, Perseverance, Patience, Strength of Will Power, Faith and Taqwa and most of all Blesses you to be obedient and "anak yang soleh to me" on this earth and hereafter. Amin, Amin, Amin Ya Robbil 'Alamin.

for a couple of days now, I have not been successful in trying to make paragraphs appear to be "paragraphs"...help?