Warkah Istimewa

Di zaman ini takde sesape berutus surat kan? The last time I exchanged letters was when I was 17. Mase tu dekat sekolah berasrama penuh. I have always wanted to attend boarding school since I was 12. It was only when I hit 16 that mak allowed me to enrol into one. Walaupon pada mulanya mak agak keberatan untuk melepaskan anaknya ini register SBP yg terletak jauh di utara. Zaman kami sekolah dulu there was no such thing as mobile phone. The technology was already available then tapi not everyone could afford one. Saya ingat lagi betapa panjangnya Q untuk menggunakan public pay phone di blok asrama kami. Dengan mase rehat yang pendek sebelum prep petang atau selepas prep malam, most of the time, memang tak sempat nak telefon mak.

Saye kekadang cemburu dengan rakan lain whose parents live within the northen state sebab their parents get to visit them every weekend. Dan selalunya during their parents' visit, makayah dorang akan bekalkan dorang dengan home cooked meals and segala stok makanan kering lain. Mujurlah ade mak yang sangat thoughtful. Every now and then, I would receive big package from mak containing all my favourite dried food. Excited and happy sangat tiap kali dapat kiriman dari mak. To my surprise as I was unwrapping the brown package, I found a letter among the items sent. Mase tu terpikir, "eh surat ape pulak ni" tapi saya sangat cam penulis surat dari tulisannnya. The penmanship was of a particular person I've known all my life. It was from none other than my abah. Never had I thought that abah would write to me. You see, I rarely spoke to abah when I was at home. Hence, to receive a letter from him was a shocker. As I read warkah dari abah, my eyes begun to well up. I couldn't quite recall what his wrote but his gesture and thought, meant so much.

A week passed by since he wrote. I decided I should write back to him, firstly to thank mak for the hassle she went through to prepare the package and secondly to thank abah for the meaningful letter. In short, that was how saya saling berutus surat dengan abah sepanjang dua tahun pengajian saya. As I reflect on those good old days of exchanging letters with abah, I feel regret that those letters are no longer in my possession. Kalaulah surat-surat tu masih ada dalam simpanan saya, I'd proudly show them to my sons. Sedih jugak bile mengenangkan warkah istimewa abah that I looked forward to receiving those years. Mungkin dalam ringgit dan sen surat itu tidak bernilai tapi pada saya ia adalah lambang those valuable moments and time yang tidak mungkin dapat diganti even if I had millions of dollars.

Abah, thank you for writing. I'm sorry if I failed tell you how much they meant to me.

#DiariWardina