A Story

Today, my dad told me a real life story of someone else. It started from this young boy who grew up in Malaysia. There was once when he was studying, a woman came to visit him while he was in school. However, his friends look at this person with a frightened look on their faces. The woman handed the young boy some money. His friends were bewildered at how the young boy is related to that woman. That woman looks weird as she had a sunken eyehole as she had lost an eye. As soon as the woman left, the whole group of children surrounded him. They asked and teased him, “Who’s that one-eyed freak? How are you related to her? She looks weird and scary! You are one weirdo too!” The boy’s pride was hurt and he answered embarrassingly, “She’s my mother.” Turns out that his mum worried that he would not have enough money for school, so came to visit him.

When the young boy reached home, he scolded his mum. “Mum, why did you come and visit me? Everyone was laughing at me. You shamed me! Everybody asked why you look so ugly!” His mum felt very hurt but said nothing.

When he was studying in University, his mother came to visit him in his hostel. He hasn’t come home for a long time. His mother missed him. Again, she was being yelled at for making an appearance at his school for the very same reason. She felt dejected but kept quiet again.

Eventually, the young boy grew up into a young man. He decided to move out of Malaysia and migrate to Singapore to stay and work. He visited her very occasionally. He now has a family of his own in Singapore. His mum very much wanted to see his children and him. However, she knew that her son doesn’t like her. So she secretly peeked at them from a distance in a vicinity when she came over Singapore. However, she was found out and the man gave her another scolding she did not deserve. She went back Malaysia.

For a very long time, the man did not return home to visit his mum. Neither did his mother come over to visit them. There was no one answering the phone when he called. Hence, one day, he decided to return home to see how his mother was doing at home.

To his surprise, there were no one living at that house anymore. He asked the neighbours about his mum. They looked at him with a peculiar expression and told him that she had passed away long ago. He listened in disbelief. How would he not know when his mother died. He went to the lawyers to see if there was a will set up by his mum. There were a small sum of money for him and a letter accompanying it. He read it.

Son. I love you so much. I know that you hate me a lot for looking like this. But you know, I didn’t used to look like this at all. I had a normal face like everyone else. When you were young, you had an eye infection. I went to many doctors to seek for medical help but it didn’t help. They said that you had to remove the eye if not your life would be in great danger. To lose an eye at a very early age would be a pain and I ask if there is any chance of a donation that could save his eye. Doctors after doctors, they tell me that is not possible in Malaysia. No one would do that. No unrelated organ donation is common at that time. If transplant is not made in time, you would lose the sight of an eye forever.

I volunteered to donate my eye in exchange for you to regain a normal life. I always want you to have the best in life, it doesn’t matter if I were laughed at by people. Because if I had not do that, the one to be laughed at was you. All I had hope for was for you to accept me…

With that, the man could not hold his tears. The mother he had been ashamed of his entire life did a noble act of giving him her eye. If not for that, he would not be where he is today. But it is all too late for him to salvage now. She is gone forever. So he hopes to spread his regrets around by telling people not to be ashamed of your parents. They are the ones who make you who you are. Every year now, he wishes he can tell his mum, “Happy Mother’s Day”.

How sad the story is. I guess we can all learn to appreciate how much our parents have given to us and to learn to embrace and love them with all we can. Happy Mothers’ Day to all.