i love him

i would like to introduce all of you to my atok.

me and atok (raya '08)

all my life i have only one grandpa.
my maternal grandpa passed away when mama was only 11.

atok lives with wan at temerloh, pahang.
their house is just 100m from sungai pahang.
back when i was a little girl, we balik kampung dengan menaiki sampan bermotor atok.
there were no electricity and no phone lines either.
abah hollered from across and it's still a mystery to me how atok can hear abah's calls.
back then we ate dinner dengan bertemankan candles and pelita.
our uncle kept us occupied by drawing with us and playing games.
at night, abah would stay awake to kipas us with paper so that we would not get bitten by mosquitoes.

with atok, kaklong, kakak and ixora.

in the early 1990's our kampung had no bathroom.
cuma ade outhouse je kt luar rumah.
so we had to mandi at sungai pahang.
wan will never let my sisters and i go alone.
she will always accompany us as we were city kids and none of us could realy swim.
i miss bathing at the sungai.
wan would always tie up our towels in a cute style and it looks like we're wearing halter dresses.

the water level at our part of the sungai was deep and it was mostly selut so only the guys yang terer berenang can swim there.
sometimes when the water is not high atok will take us across the river and we'll mandi there coz the water is shallow and ade pasir2 sume (ala2 pantai gitu).

the river is atok's world.
he cannot go one day without crossing it with his motorboat (he nows own a motorboat).
even till now and he is 84 years old i think.
it worries all of us.
he is not that strong anymore and he walks with the help of a walking cane.
i don't know how he can turun the tebing to go to the river.
even i can't do it without slipping and i can walk just fine.
we constantly remind him and advice him not to go anymore.
but he would have none of it.
balik kampung haritu pon atok went across the river to buy kelapa parut although so many of us were at home and could've gotten it.
the sight of him carrying the plastic bag full of kelapa parut with his cane twists my heart.
i wish he would just stay at home but i know that will kill him.
he just has to 'pergi menyeberang' everyday.

that's my atok.
84 years old and he can still drive his motorboat.
bet your grandpas aren't like this right?
;p