Langit Biru? Not Always For Some

Off from work today, I decided to drive to my fave haunt to get some pet supplies as well as some dinner. Bought some food for mum, which I ended up finishing most of anyways. Feeling rather buoyed, smiled for the most part, except when I was bitchin' about Maxis's service earlier in the day.

Anyways, shortly after my second dinner (where I demolished the stuff Mak couldn't finish in short order), my mum related the fact that she received a phonecall from my Aunt (her younger sister, based in JB). As it were, my aunt went to Segamat over the weekend to accompany another relative. Probing further, I suddenly wished I hadn't....

This relative apparently drove up all the way to Segamat to bring her gravely sick child, to meet her former husband. This child, who was diagnosed with Leukemia some years ago is rapidly declining. Treatment no longer works, reduced to only receiving daily blood transfusions, to replace the ones consumed by the illness. The doctors have postulated that at best, the child has another 3 months to live.

Not exactly post dinner talk huh? I was dumbstruck, for once unable to quip a clever retort.

I sometimes wonder what use is there for a child to suffer so much pain, and to have to leave so quickly before any chance to deliver upon life's promise.

Religion has taught me to accept it, and for the most I part I do, though deep in me somewhere I still wonder. Qada' and Qadar. What is written is a promise never broken. It is His will, and only in His infinite wisdom lies the lesson. When children die, they return to His blessed embrace for ever more.

Still, it is a bitter pilll to swallow. I cannot help but think, that a parent somewhere is helplessly watching the the clock ticking, watching the sands of time slipping through her helpless fingers. The greatest pain a parent would ever know is having to bury their child it is said. I can only imagine...

What would be the right way? A sudden loss so quick there isn't time for heartfelt goodbyes or a slow creep, allowing time for closure of indvidual chapters? Begs the question; Does it hurt any less either way?

Update: Friday, 5 February 2010.

The inevitable has arrived. My mum received mention that the child has passed away in the morning, months short of what the doctors guesstimated.

I dont know why but it makes me sad. The morning felt leaden, and as if to mourn the passing of the child, the heavens were pouring, patterings of rain drops echoing the feelings of those who have lost. Then it dawned on me, today is a Friday. A day considered by many to be blessed. There is great comfort in knowing this, as I know the parents will too.

Rest in peace child, you are in His love  now. Al-Fatihah.