Auntie

As what Yuuko from Xxxholic would say

Hitsuzen

Defined as a naturally foreordained event. A state in which other outcomes are impossible. A result which can only be obtained by a single causality, and other causalities would necessarily create different results.


Sometimes it does truly apply in life. XD

Like when an old nanny who used to babysit my brother and later on take care of us, just happened to drop by the house about 10 minutes ago.

If, oh my, if I had decided to tag along with my parents and my brother as they drove down to Nilai, where the main campus of Inti to conclude the arrangements of the transfer from the Subang campus....

As it is, I had Acct Theory assignment to be due, and well, I had already spend the whole of yesterday with my parents visiting my grandparents and also the Floral Fest in Putrajaya. My brother opted to stay home yesterday, to brush up on some studying for his resit.

Auntie and her family occupied the lowest ground of the four storey high flats we used to live in. It was a small 2 bedroom, 1 kitchen, 1 bathroom flat, which we had on the highest floor. It what my parents would afford at that time, after all, finances was tight and with only 2 young toddlers, it was enough to live on.

I had grown up at my maternal grandparents, which my brother was cared for by auntie, she would take in a kid or two for extra income. Why were we split?

To spare my gramma the headaches, and my parents the many complaints of my aunt who lived with her and is terribly occupied with the cleanliness of the house.

Yups.

Then later, as my parents struggle to buy the very house I'm sitting inside, it became another dilemma as to whom would they get to care for us.

My parents wanted us siblings to grow up together. Which we eventually did, albeit with loads of bickering and quarreling of course. My grandparents had grown attached to the mini me, and this snowballed into quite an argument as my parents stood their ground on taking me home, and schooling me somewhere nearer to where our new house was situated. Similarly, they stopped the services of Auntie, and brought my brother home as well.

It erally hard to find the services of a nice caretaker. A maid would drain our savings, so my parents was looking for a nice lady who would only have to look after us for the day, and even cook a meal or two for the family.

That was it.

Oh, the weird aunties we've had. Mum can still recall them to us, and this resulted in a huge roar of laugher.

A very dedicated Christian lady who would flinch at the slighest small distance of my dad. You know lar, my dad is teh kepoh one, you cook, he'll hover around adding his spices of advice and what nots. Simply because he's into anything food, and also he has a really friendly attitude. Besides, in this small house, you can't expect a man to not walk around his own house? durrrr.

Another lady who had the gall to wash her boyfriend's laundry in the same basket where our laundry was. She got the boot when my dad found some unknown underwear with his pile of underwear. sweaaaaatttt. There must be a certain boundary of limits mar. And that includes not sneaking out food from our fridge.

There was this plump friendly lady who seemed to be a-ok, Except for the cooking, which would be hugeeeeeeeeee ass dishes. Yea. I can't remember why she stopped though. Would be her daughter or something.

So anyway, when Auntie heard about our dilemma, she relented to continue to care for us. After all, this would mean only being back home for the weekends, since she lived in Shah Alam.

But even then, my parents took the liberty to making sure she gets her weekend at home and drove her to and forth. I can recall, sitting on the rides in Subang Parade's small amusement center every Sunday, after which we would pick Auntie up for the week, it was our weekly thing. They didn't expect much from her, as they did with all the other helps they had, just someone to care for us kiddos. Anywhere we go, she'd go, and any hols means she gets to rest. She even got her own room, since we siblings slept together.

This continued until I was in primary 2. It was then, that they decided it wouldn't be fair since she was quite worn out, and deserves to rest at home. So then, my brother and I went over to Latchkey's Childcare Center, which had then newly opened up.

Yea. My pathetic tale of me, myself. XD

We still made it a point to visit Auntie and her family every CNY, for many many years. Until such was the responsibilities of my parents to visit their many relatives had gotten too much, and also Auntie and her husband decided to move in with one of her three sons.

It's been a few years since we've last seen her. And she hasn't change a bit. XD

I would say she has an amazing memory. Because somewhere during her moving, our phone number was lost, and she got her daughter-in-law to drive her here and find our house merely on memory alone.

That, and also our fat, shady rat-fertilized tree in the little patch in the front helped. haha XD