I lost someone very dear to me yesterday.

I call her Mak Noli. She's my mum's best friend. And she's like an aunt to me.
After almost 2 years battling stage 4 lung cancer, she has gone back to the Almighty, Allah S.W.T.

I have no point to this post except to express how sad I am that I couldn't be there in Malaysia for her. I remember the last time I spoke to her. It was about a week before I leave home for the States. She was in the hospital and she hugged as I was about to leave. She told me to study, to give it my all for she doesn't know if she will still be here the next time I come home.

And indeed, that was the last time I would ever see her again. She is in a better place now. And I know that Allah has placed her among the righteous. The Mak Noli I know and will always remember deserves nothing less.

To her last breath, she was as strong as a pillar. I could see how her forehead would wrinkle in pain on one of her numbered days, but she still managed a smile when I waved her goodbye.
When my mum went to perform her hajj in 2009, she would visit us kids at home often. She would cook for us. She taught me how to make pai tee- a Chinese appetizer.

I am just rambling now.
I will miss her. No string of words will be able to express that. Nothing that I say will do her justice because she was an amazing person with a humongous heart.

Mak Noli, kakak harap Mak Noli tenang kat sana. Al-Fatihah.