A Person I Will Never Forget
“Congratulations! It’s a baby boy.’’ This was the sentence that I heard 5 years ago. It was a day of joy for me and my family. My parents were blessed with a boy after three girls. Everyone was delighted because the new baby was coming home. I dressed very prettily and I made a card for my mom, with ‘’Welcome Ami and new baby’’ written on the first page. The month of April was the happiest month. Now I thought that everything would be good, and that my whole family would be happy for the rest of our lives. I was a bit worried as well, because my final exam was the following month. I didn’t know that a big disaster was waiting to happen.
At the beginning of May, my mom started to tell me that I had to study and I ensured her that I would do my best. Before my exam my dearest father’s sister, whose name was Nafeesa, but whom we used to call ‘’dada’’, came ask my mother’s advice. I was sitting next to my mother and playing with my brother so I heard Nafeesa say, ‘’I am pregnant, I want to do have an abortion.’’ My mother told her she was mad and warned her not to do it. I still remember Nafeesa saying: “What people will think about me? I have a 9-month-old baby and again I am having another baby.”
But my mother tried to explain to her that having an abortion was wrong. I still remember on 13th May 2013, when I was preparing for my first exam, my grandmother crying to my father saying that Nafeesa’s condition was not good. Doctors had told that she needed an operation urgently and my grandmother had come to take money. When my father and grandmother went back to the hospital, Nafeesa was sitting on a bench outside and holding her stomach. When my father asked why she was sitting there and why she hadn’t been taken inside, the staff replied that they did not have a bed. After that, she was taken to a government hospital where she was told that she had had her abortion and some of the things left inside were causing poison to increase in her body. As happens in our country, the operation was delayed until 14 May at 2pm.
The operation was successful. Everyone went to see her in hospital but I was busy preparing for my Islamiat exam. I decided that I would go to meet my aunty Nafeesa when my father came to take the dinner. At 11pm, a call came on my mom’s phone. It was my father calling to tell my mother that my grandmother was not well and that she must go outside to receive her. We all went outside to wait for my grandmother. We have good and helpful neighbors. They also came out and asked about Nafeesa’s condition. My mother was answering their question, when my brother started to cry, so she went inside to feed him. Suddenly, a voice came saying ‘kyaaa?’’ and I ran inside and asked what had happened. With her eyes filled with tears my mom told me that my aunty was no more. I couldn’t control myself. I started to shout and I just fell down because elf my hands and feet were shaking and my mouth was not saying a word and my heart was not accepting this what I had heard.
I had a special relationship with her. She was more than my aunty: she was my mother. She was my father’s elder sister. She loved us as if we were her own children. The one thing I loved the most about her was the way she always kissed me on my forehead. She always had good relations with her neighbours, friends and family; this is the only reason why she is still remembered. I really loved her, I still miss her and I still regret that I was not able to meet her one last time. ‘’ Gates of memories will never close, how much I miss you no one knows, days will pass away into years, and we will think about those memories with silent tears.’’ I love you so much, Nafeesa aunty. You will always stay in our heart. May Allah send you to Paradise, Amen .