Apples of my eye

Aisyah (L) and Yasmin - At Stratford-upon-Avon

ON her last day at the kindergarten, my eldest daughter, Yasmin, handed me a work of art she had just completed. It was the mark of her tiny palm against the paper's white background. A poem was also written on the paper, saying the tiny palm will one day be tiny no more.
 I shed a tear on reading the poem, also thinking that as she finished kindergarten, she'd be schooling and from there she will advance in her life and that one day, I will have to set her free to seek her own life and future.

 On her first day at school, I sat by a monsoon drain across the road from where her class was, waiting for her to finish. I knew it seemed foolish as my house was just nearby. I could have gone home and return to the school to fetch her home later.
 But no. I waited there hoping to get a glimpse of her in her class, just to assure myself that she was alright.
 I bathed Yasmin from the day she was born until she could do so on her own and five years later did the same to her sister, Aisyah. In fact I was always looking forward to those times. There wasn't a smell sweeter than that of a baby just bathed.
 As Yasmin had long hair, I brushed them and tied her pony tail every morning before the school bus comes. And I did so dilligently.
 I read story books for both of them at night and at times sang nursery rhymes to put them to sleep. In time we became the best of friends.
 When Aisyah was diagnosed as suffering from scoliosis three years ago, I was devastated. Scoliosis is the gradual curving of the spine, and if not treated could become harmful in her later years. The most effective treatment however was corrective surgery.
 Though we went through an extensive consultation with the physician and surgeon prior to the surgery, I remained afraid since the procedure was quite complex, given the surgery was to be performed very close to Aisyah's spinal chords.
 But the doctors at the Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM) in Cheras assured me that the success rate for such surgeries were high. I read about the ailment all the time, just to give myself the strength to let my daughter go through it.
 But Aisyah herself was always confident and her spirits were high, even as they wheeled her into the operating theatre at about 3 in the afternoon, on February 10, 2010. That day was also my birthday.
 When she waved at me as they closed the door to the operating theatre, my heart sank as I asked myself a hundred times whether I had made the correct decision to go ahead with the surgery.
 The surgery involved surgeons making a 14-inch incision at her back. They then straightened her curving spine and fixed two 10-inch titanium rods to hold the spine in the straightened position. The rods were in turn fixed to her spine using 12 titanium screws. It was an expensive surgery.
 When they wheeled her out some four hours later, my wife and me were relieved although we were a bit sad to see her in pain. They gave her morphine to help her cope with the pain before taking the drug off her two days later.
 I took a month-and-a-half leave to attend to Aisyah and when we brought her back home a week later, we nursed her back to health. She gained two inches in height after the surgery and soon discovered that she could wear plenty of the clothes she previously could not because of her curved spine.
 Both of them are different in some ways. Aisyah is a lot like me, always with something up her sleeves and quite a dreamer too. She carries herself well in a crowd and somehow always commands attention.

 Yasmin is a lot like her mum. She is quiet, stubborn, hot-headed but single-minded. But Yasmin still has a lot of a child in her although she had just graduated. She talks nonsense with me most of the time but keeps no secrets from me.
 Both of them were with me during my three-year posting in New York. They enjoyed life there and went to a public school. Being small at the time, they picked up the american accent quickly. Aisyah still talks like someone from the 'hood' in Queens to this day.
 These days however, they spend less time with me as they each have their own things to do. I guess that was only expected. It was like yesterday when I carried them around but I can't hold their hands when we walk anymore now.
 I don't demand much from my daughters. I only want them to end up as better persons than I am. I don't expect them to be with me forever either. In fact, I have always encouraged them to venture outside of Malaysia if they get the opportunity because I've always believed that there was a reason why God created the vast world, with its different environment and people.

ENDS