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You and Sandra
by maria antonia rahartati bambang haryo What's the best thing in life? Is it wealth, career, or luxury? What if I'm talking about health, love, and family? How sad, for decades I didn't juggle adroitly my job with folks closest to my heart regrettably the balance in my life has tilted toward my work A couple of times to further my study oh dear, what a futile ambition I have left and stayed ten thousand miles away from my family home This seemed okay, in the short term but it was not in the end the guilty feeling was, and still there imprinted permanently Rather than celebrating Christmas with my dearly loved parents, husband and my son Joseph, he was a very cute boy of two years then Among hundreds of strangers I felt lonely Notre Dame de Paris lost its nobleness while Christmas carols sounded morose I was not there hugging him when his malpositioned teeth had to be extracted by our family dentist .... I was not there for him when he noiselessly climbed high the star fruit tree in our back yard while every body were in siesta Thanks God, you were saved by Loso, our faithful helper Companies often forget to keep score, but he did not ... I still remember the day when he said to me, "Ibu, For months I loved to wave to every plane passing high in the sky thinking you were there ... My dear Lord, would you erase his thoughts of our farewell embrace at the Kemayoran airport, back in October 1968 One horrible day, while you were faraway at Sorbonne I cried my eyes out when our dog Sandra died ... Then Bapak immediately took me to bed and there we both cried silently missing you, losing you, pining for you." Your words were a personal reminder, Joseph that a career can always be acquired, but a mother may not experience another memorable opportunity with her family Author's Notes - Sandra was our dearly loved pets when Joseph was two years old. - Joseph is now a wonderful and caring father to my three precious grandchildren: Reinhard, Bee and Lyra, and the head of the family since Jesus called my husband back to His home. Thank you, Joseph, for being you. - Ibu (Javanese/Indonesian): mother - Bapak (Javanese/Indonesian): father - translator - from French and English into Indonesian since 1979; 96 books have been published. - writer - 12 children books and 2 novellettes in Indonesian have been published. - member of fanstory.com; I have posted 77 writings (short stories and poetry) Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |