Life by the beach

... is the the title of my first published book,
a picture storybook from the 'voice' of a little girl (not so little anymore),
raised up in a modest two-story house by the beach,
with her large family,
The book portrayed our life journey,
in additions to how my versions of the perfect life should be.

Published by the DBP,
It was in 2000, that I wrote the book,
dedicated to our beloved youngest sister.

To the little girl that allow me to use her name
for the title of the book,
let me share some of the most memorable episodes,
up in the modest two-story house by the beach;

We were not born with a silver platter,
nor did we have to beg for a living,
to that we will always be thankful to Allah for
blessing us with everything.

Our parents and close family members are very resourceful,
hardworking, humble and patient
I think, after my whole lifetime of seeing how they course through life,
their motto should be, "if it can be done by others, it can be learnt"
hence the DIY concept runs thick in our blood
card making, recycling, fishing (sometimes we shared our worries
when dad went far out to sea),
welding, tailoring, fruit planting and baking,
to name a few ventures that we explored

Our old house used to be a shophouse
before we moved the shop out of the house,
I used to be the shopkeeper also the cashier
I dont know how old I was back then,
but I remembered I was still in primary school
and I was the only one allowed to operate the coconut grater
(and I can tell you, I earned a lot of money from that business,
I got 10 cents per coconut.)

We used to have a large freezer where we kept our ice-creams for sale,
We ate ice-creams as much as we sold them,
that was probably the reason why we LOVE ice-creams so much

Back then, we dont have maids to help around the house,
mom patiently cared, cooked, washed and did the housekeeping single-handed
Back then, you guys didn't have disposable diapers
but you were lucky enough to wear lampin or washable
squarish white cloth folded into a diaper
and as the eldest and most responsible sister
I had the privilege to clean and wash and hang rows of these lampin,
if still used, might help reduce pollution.

Our Dad is an artist.
He does not paint as much anymore and prefer practical work instead.
but I admit that he is an excellent artist,
I think that our little sister that lend her name for the title of the book
and our youngest sister are the ones that inherited most of this creative talent,

and so are the rest of our family members,
we used to express ourselves
on the walls of our modest two-story house by the beach,
The writings on the walls were as far as a short kid could reach
pen and pencil markings, similar to those cave wall paintings,
traces of the time tables, spellings and mathematics calculations
or probably a kid's version of the world map!

The best part was that,
we get to paint the walls ourselves every year,
right before the coming of the Eid.

The modest two-story house is no longer there,
but our memories and moments that we shared will
always be in our hearts forever,
to everyone in our family
family defined as brothers + sisters + closest dearest and beloved cousins
whether you
have or have never lived in the modest two-story house,
have or have never seen the wall paintings,
have or have never experienced my anger (because I cared),
have or have never frustrated me to tears (because I cared),
have or have never got a hug (I do LOVE you as much and more than I love myself)

I probably
have never blurted 'I LOVE you'
because words are just composed of letters
verbs without hearts
meaning without substance

It is much more than that. And its true.

Happy Birthday,
Little sister that allowed me to use her name,
May Allah bless you with happiness and success,
Fid Dunia Hassanah, Wafil Akhirati Hassanah.

Love always