It was an experience that shows how much you know about your own staff. I never realised that Ayu, a staff at the non-governmental charity organisation that I run, is an orphan. I never even knew that she is only 18 years of age. She looks and acts way beyond her age. Her father passed away last year. Her mother, ran away with an elderly and supposedly pious man, along with the late father’s monthly pension last June, after selling off the family car and some other posessions. So Ayu is left to fend for herself as well as for two younger sisters aged 12 and 5. Her elder brother went off and never came back. Her younger brother gave up school to work somewhere in Pahang. None of her relatives have offered a helping hand. An aunt, conveniently raids her food locker everytime she gets her pay “for free meals for her family.” Yes, it sickens me how some relatives turn into vultures.
Ayu’s youngest sister, Najwa, turned 5 today, and Ayu was wondering how to celebrate her sister’s birthday. So I suggested she bring her sisters to the house for the breaking of the fast. By the time she arrived, we had hidden the birthday cake. It was the best birthday do her sister has ever had, if not in years.
Ayu is now back in that house, some 2km away from here, and tomorrow her cycle of routine begins at 4am, when she has to wake up to cook for the sisters in preparation for tomorrow’s fast, then do the household chores. At 10am, she’ll be in the office.
I now wonder how will they spend their first Hari Raya without the parents and brothers….just the three of them.
SeaDemon Says 