Bibik

Every morning after sending Abang to school I will usually stop by mom’s house. Wanting breakfast, of course. Bibik who sees that I come regularly, started cooking breakfast earlier.

But itupun depends lah, kalau dia sempat dia buat.

Like yesterday morrning I arrived seeing her scrambling eggs.

“Ko tak nak makan ini ? Aku sudah masak ni ha… Makanlah….”

OOoooo… happy. Took some, ate while talking to my mom then entered the kitchen to wash the plate.

“Ko tinggal aja… itu teh nya… Minum…”

Hai……

Best kan ? She is truly remarkable.
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The house is very clean eversince she joined our family 4 years ago. She plant flowes whenever she is free. There are also a huge karapule tree, a few bushes of serai and pandan and a whole row of keladi.

She knows my baby bro Ijat loves chicken so whenever Mummy didn’t include chicken in her menu, she would fry some for him.

She takes care of the cat (and their mess).

She lovingly manages my nieces. Food, bathing them etc.

Once when I came there was nasi goreng enough for one person only, which she had saved for herself. But seeing my delighted face, she asked me to eat it, siap gorengkan telur lagi. Because she knows I adore nasi goreng with telur err.... goreng... HA ha...

If we have guests or we ourselves eat until midnight she would wait to clean up. No matter how much we tell her to sleep first, she wouldn’t and most of the time she would join us.

During puasa and I see this many, many times if Mummy was still slaving away on the hot stove when Adzan was heard, she would take a cup to my Mum.

In turn, we respect her.

She has the right to membebel and marah kita orang. And she does that a lot.

She has her meals with us when she wants to, usually Ramadhan. She would join in the merrymaking and conversation, very much a part of us. Once I saw her telling jokes to my Dad while buka and my Dad laughing uproariously back. Siap bangun buat aksi lagi Bibik.

She steals from us.

Yeah…. Nobody is perfect.

We found out last year pulak tu, when she was already 3 years with us.

We were shocked. Mum was upset and disappointed.

She talked about sending her back to Indon. She mourned over the whole pack of Ikea glasses and jugs and a few mobile phones that Bibik packed off to her kampung.

I said to mom, “Please think about the other stuffs she did… The good stuffs. The stealing is her kelemahan and we must manage it with her. You will never find anybody that loves us like she does….”

Mummy diam and thought about it.

It has been like a whole six month after her problem was revealed to us.

We still love her.

She still surprises me with cekodok or egg sarnies creamy with mayo in the morning. I reciprocate with “Aku cinta pada mu Bik”.

She still serves me tea whenever I come for lunch or dinner, doling out sambal and curry as soon as she heard my car. He he…

She cleans the bathroom and served us keladi from our backyard.

She is capable and hardworking and she cares. Sometimes itu yang lacking with workers... peduli. A lot of workers tak peduli.

She makes the effort to be efficient.

She yelled at the electrician who chopped off the crawling yellow flowers when he came to change the garden light yesterday, “Woi ! Habis pokok aku !” while my Mum did her best to placate her.

She still steals ?

I don’t know. I suppose so because we didn’t tell her we knew.

But she is too precious and too important to be kicked out for that.

She is like a naughty family member that we love and have to endure and accommodate their weaknesses.

Yesterday Mummy whispered to me, "Sungguh pun dia ni dok... you know... panjang tangan, tapi susah kalau tak dak dia...."

Itulah. Kita terima ajelah. Nobody is perfect. Let alone kita yang bercakap ni.