NADIA & NABILLA - Little Darlings (CsH)

Nadia, Adam and Nabilla 6(?) years ago


With thanks to missmusicUSA

Today, for a change - I want to write about something sweet and heartwarming.

I don't see much of Sabrina's and Mahzan's two girls because they are always the furthest away, either in Miri or Johor Bahru.

But when we do manage to get together it is always a memorable and touching occasion.

Nadia is quiet and gentle. She often has her nose in a book and tends to be serious like her late great uncle Akim. After all, if she had waited for an hour or so , her birth day would have been the same as Akim's. Shark's fin soup is her one weakness, her favourite food. On her birthday a few weeks ago, she was really looking forward to ...... what else?

A few months ago, I was chatting to her Tok Wan, my sister , about shark's fins 'fishing'. Because shark meat does not fetch a good price, only the fins are removed and the shark is dumped back into the sea where without its fins the shark loses the ability to swim and finally sinks and dies. (See www. guardian.co.uk/environment/2005/jun/29/fishing.food and drink.)This delicacy comes at a heavy price. I'm afraid we have become more and more brutal about satisfying our carnivorous appetite. You only have to scour the internet for examples of our inhumane regard for animals whether for food or otherwise.

Her grandma conveyed this information to Nadia and upon hearing that she ordered something else for her birthday treat. She was not pressured in any shape or form. She just wanted to.

This is from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, "The Ancient Mariner" - a poem I had to study when I was in Form Four.

Farewell, farewell! but this I tell

To thee, thou Wedding Guest!

He prayeth well, who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small;

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all.

Bless you Nadia.

As for Bella, cheeky, stubborn Bella with the marshmallow heart - how could I forget that day in the hotel in Serangoon Road about 3 years ago? We, Sabrina and I and the 3 kids had spent the day at Sentosa and had gone back to the hotel for a deserved rest.

Bella and I were lolling on the bed and being her usual curious self, she started asking me if I had any brothers and sisters. So I mentioned her Tok Wan my sister, my brother Mus and my late brother Akim . She wanted to know why my youngest brother died. I explained it to her. Then she asked for his name and I replied "Mustakim". By now she was her usual over - active self, jumping up and down on the bed. She paused for a second, looked at me, smiled and said, " I also know a Mustakim".
I was taken aback and asked her, "Where is he?" She kept on bouncing on the bed, her smile getting broader and wider all the while and she said, "Ih - dinas - siratul-mustaqim "
I looked and listened in disbelief, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry... Bella, you are an enigma - a beautiful and delightful enigma.

Sabrina and Mahzan, I don't know what you've done to deserve these two daughters. But thank you for bringing them into this world, our world.