Normah got a cucu

On 17/12/2009, my niece Normah Ibrahim got a cucu. The baby girl was born in Kulim and weighed 3.65kg at birth. Her name is Raaesya Zahra, first daughter to Ku Marsilla and Raa Khimi (the father). It looks like that all my nieces and nephews from both sides, have cucus already. I am glad and envious. I am now going on 71, have six children, but not a single cucu. Both my girls are living and working overseas but not married. My four boys are still young for marriage, except Zaki who married last August 2009. Sometimes I feel embarrassed when attending my colleagues' childrens' wedding and the normal question asked, is "how many cucu do you have?" Hopefully, Zaki won't let me down.

I am from Segamat

My father, Ayob bin Abd Rahman was from Kg Gemereh, Segamat. But his father and ancestors were from Serkam, Melaka; as refugees from Aceh, being chased out by the Dutch then. They must have been some kind of freedom fighters, I think. But my father, after his travels to Pattani to seek religious education, came back to Segamat and settled in Kg Bumbun in the early 1900s and worked on the jungle land alienated to him by the Govt then. He was also the local Imam. He married my mother on 28 May 1918, and had his first daughter, Ramlah in July 1923. Then my sister Zainab came in 1927, followed by brother Ismail in 1928. I was born on 22 July 1939.
My father died on 24 Mar 1975 and was buried in Kg Lubuk Batu, in the same cemetery as Bendahara Tepok, the "founder" of Segamat way back in 1511. The site of Bendahara Tepok's landing is by the river now known as Sungai Segamat. There is a mosque there now and the cemetery is opposite the mosque. The cemetery is well kept, probably because of its historical significance.