One thing about Daniel is, he’s not afraid to speak English even though he knows that he’s not fluent at all. I really admire his courage.Tom, my sis’s friend from Belgium came down in KL for 2 weeks and since my apartment is empty, I let him stayed at my apartment for few days. So, two nights before he “check-out” from my apartment, and since my sis was not in town, Angah (my cousin) & I together with Daniel, we took liberty to take Tom out for dinner.
Daniel is always being friendly to all our friends. While Angah is driving the car, he started asking questions at Angah and myself ie why Uncle Tom can’t speak Malay, why Uncle Tom this and that. And sometime he would try to ask Tom as well and Tom will try to answer him like yes, no or if he doesn’t understand he just laugh and smile at Daniel…
We took Tom to a mamak restaurant at Kota Damansara and as usual, Daniel will order for himself his favorite roti canai. And Tom, surprisingly he too ordered Roti Telur and Kopi! Haha! When the foods all arrived, Daniel suddenly asked me, “mama, macam mana nak cakap kat Uncle Tom suruh dia makan?”, with a small laugh I told him. “Please eat” and he then looked at Tom and said, “Uncle Tom, please eat!” and Tom with a little laughed and said, “ok”. After Daniel finishes his food, he started teasing Uncle Tom and there's a times in broken English he will tell of all about himself ie how old is he, he has Ironman toy etc etc…
On the way back, we passed-by my sis’s office and Daniel knows very well where my sis’s office is. IBU is what Daniel called my sis. With a cheeky smile he then suddenly slowly word by word said in English to Tom, “Uncle Tom, you know my ibu’s office? I show you”. He then, “look, that’s ibu office”, pointing at one of the building along LDP highway. He then went on telling Tom, “I have 2 mothers and 2 fathers” And with his right hand he showed his 2 small fingers to Tom and Tom was “Oh! Yeah?”. And Daniel continued, “Yes. My ibu is Nora Tarmizi, my mother is Sal Tarmizi, my father is Papa Ngah Hisham and Azlan”. Angah (he’s the papa ngah actually) and I, we both just laughed at his proud statement.
The truth is, deep down in my heart I was touched when he proudly mentioned who his parents are. An innocent child who knows that those names that he mentioned are the person, who loves him the most and his loving parent.
Dear Anakku Daniel, please remember that no matter what other people might said about us, we are your moms and your dads. We love you so much and nothing compared our loves. And the most important is “You are my son and I love you” - mama.
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