Pakcik Reminisces ( Pt 34 ) – The Unforgettable Pauline

A Calendar a Year 

We are more than a fortnight into 2014 and I am just about to draft my first posting. After being so belated, to wish a Happy New Year seems superfluous and frivolous. Let Pakcik give a simple excuse; that I have been busy – driving in and out of Terengganu for weddings, and managing the new intakes into Almanar.    

As I sat resting in an easy chair holding a new 2014 diary, my memory flashed back to a time long gone. I recall how faithfully I used to sit to fill the first page of each year’s diary with silent prayers and endless resolutions, refreshed one year after another with a renewed determination. Those days are over. A lap-top is never like pages of a diary, pages which age and can turn yellowish/brownish with time, or can even be damaged by silver fish, but cannot be readily altered or reedited.      

And there, on my writing-table, lies a beautiful calendar with an accompanying letter written in the unmistakable hand of a very dear old friend, Pauline.

A 2014 Calendar

My memory goes back over thirty years ago when we arrived in London, our temporary home. How timely it was that I had to spend some time working in UK, as our No1 was about to join an A-level college, and our No2 was to follow later. 

Among the very first few office colleagues I was introduced in that office building towering high over the Thames and the Waterloo Bridge, was that young English lady who has been a dear friend to this day. Pauline has never failed to send us a beautiful calendar every year over the last twenty years. Isn’t this a record?

                                        August                                                        

                        
A couple of years after our return to KL Pauline and her mother flew in to visit us. One unforgettable incident, that tickles us all till this day, happened one morning when we were in Masjid Negara. Excited over the beauty of the mosque, Pauline did not realise that one part of the marble floor had just been mopped, and she took a fall - harmless enough to become a joke. Over the phone on the Christmas eve three weeks ago we talked and joked about that incident.

What saddens Makcik and me most is that our Pauline has not been too well in recent years. In her handwritten letter accompanying her 2014 calendar she wrote:

“…… I am still recovering from the major operation I had on my stomach and bowl in June but, although not right, I am a lot better than I was. I have booked to go on two cruises next year (2014) – two weeks to the Med in May with my niece, and one week to Norway in July with my friend and my 6-year old Goddaughter. I am looking forward to both. I do wish I could fly but the doctors say ‘no’ – I would be out there to see you!! ……”

I instinctively know, we will meet again one of these days.    

Pakcik can happily go on reminiscing over this very special English lady. Perhaps I would, one day, write about her special love for an active life, especially in Girls Guide. She has been at it for 50 years and, believe it or not, she is now holding the rank of a Commissioner. Her health and having to move in a wheelchair do not prevent her from driving, yearly cruising and Guiding.

We wish all the best for her.

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