I have not written for many years. Last I wrote in this blog was in 2011. It’s good that no one reads blogs much nowadays so I get a bit of privacy here - privacy in publishing my thoughts to the world.
Oxymoron much?
I don’t know where to start really but after around 20 plus years of living in London, we are now back in Malaysia. Mr S decided he wanted to return home. Actually it’s not a sudden decision of his. It has always been at the back of his mind that he wanted to go back and this was due to his parents. They are in their late 70s this year, Allah bless them - we have been away for too long and now Mr S wants to be present and not too far away. Indeed he is a good son - May Allah reward him for it. My mother (May Allah preserve her) too is elderly and is in her 80s but I’m not particularly worried about her as she has 5 other siblings of mine around and plenty of grandchildren to visit her. But Mr S’s 2 other siblings are very much unmarried and Mr S is the eldest one - so one can understand the guilt he feels and the burden of responsibility that lies heavily on his shoulders.
However, Mr S postponed going back for years because he wanted to achieve certain things in his career first and he wanted to make sure the boys are older and are independent and won’t need the parentals to be around. Let me tell you, Mr S is the kind of person that carefully plans and tries to forecast every possible outcome that can happen in life and prepares the contingency plans - he used to be worse when younger! But his plannings and the steps taken from those plans bore fruit and we finally reached the point where we could return home. This point came after Mr S successfully lead a company for 3 years in London and Little H, (I will refer to him as Tall H from now on as he is the tallest in the family) has gone to study at university, living independently in the accommodations. As for Big H, he already graduated from his MEng degree 2 years ago now and is working as a Graduate Engineer, recently promoted to Assistant Engineer in an apparently well known engineering firm. Alhamdulillah.
It’s just Little N left (now not so little anymore) staying with us and currently in Secondary - she’s not sitting for any major exams for a few years yet - thus, it’s the best time to return. So we came back last year in 2024.
But the truth is we have definitely settled down in London. You could say that the anchor has been lowered and is stuck in between rocks deep in the channel or River Thames or whatever never to be moved again! But move it we must because Mr S strongly believes in duty to the family - a trait of his that I truly admire and respect - and when that duty calls, he must answer. This is also about being righteous - maintaining family ties and filial peity are commands mentioned many times in the Quran. There is no better reason than this really, so for this very strong reason we packed our bags and boxes and left.
So here we are back in Malaysia. Not without tears, mind. But here we are.
