Mbak D's Note

I read this note on my friend's fb page. It's really touching, so here it is:

Children...the center of my being.
Today at 4:26am


Pagi tadi gedebukan kesana kemari (as usual) after a long weekend gak ke mandiga... Kebetulan musti ngeladenin tamu dari luar Mandiga.

Ehhhh...lihat sesosok manusia kecil lincah kesana kemari bawa makanan minumannya sendiri. Aaaahhhh... the little boy yang kemarin minum air aki ! He is BACK! Daaannn....just like what he was before! Aduh, Tuhan.. Terima Kasih.

He is healed, and (hopefully) with minimal problems in his intestines. Memang benar kayaknya, bahwa anak-anak spesial ini dilindungi malaikat ya?

Gak sempat berhandai-handai (kecuali sangat bersyukur bahwa Allah sekali lagi sudah membuktikan kebesaranNya), sudah harus ngeladenin tamu... Naaahhhh... in the middle of it, anakku sms:

Ikhsan: 'kapan teman belajar'
Aku: 'kamis 22 januari 2009'
I : laki laki perempuan
A: perempuan
I : cantik pintar
HALAAAAAHHHHHH....resek ah!
A: ikhsan tidak pilih teman
I: ikhsan mau pilih
A: tidak boleh pilih.
I: cantik pintar tidak berisik
A: Ikhsan tidak boleh pilih teman. Ibu marah.
I : harus pilih
A: (udah mulai bete) TIDAK HARUS.
I: pintar bahasa indonesia, matematika, fisika, biologi
(LHO? Ini nyari temen belajar atau cari guru, sih???)

A: Tidak pilih teman.
*lagi ngotot juga en lagi mode ngajak berantem anak remaja menyebalkan*

I: rumah cipinang harus pintar

HHhaaallllaaaaahhhhhh..... gak tahu dateng dari mana, rupanya dia punya persepsi bahwa "kalau di Mandiga itu, belajarnya masih yang gampang2, jadi kalau di rumah cipinang, sudah harus pintar".
Blagu banget sih?

Kayaknya dia nguping deh, sewaktu aku malem sebelumnya telpon gurunya untuk diskusi tentang materi belajar teman belajarnya itu. Nyebelin 'kan???
Ibunya diem aja lah mendingan. Puyeng.

On the other hand...terselip juga kebanggaan hati bahwa anakku yang autis ini, yang segera akan 18 tahun ini, punya kriteria:
- cantik saja, gak oke
- pintar saja, masih oke
- yang paling oke, pintar dan cantik
- tidak pintar? aaahhhh...males aaaahhhhhh

Hm.
Bagusnya merasa apa nih?
Bingung, senang, bangga, sebel, kesal, terpesona...

Well, life is full of choices.... I chose to be happy for him.
I'm surely amazed of God's creation....but bottomline, I'm just happy to have him with me.
I'm also very happy that I'm given the chance to be with children, as I love them so much... with all my heart.

Terima kasih Tuhan, atas karuniaMu dalam bentuk Ikhsan Priatama.

I love you, Ikhsan... just the way you are.

Crazy

Last Saturday I was waiting for the bus at the bus stop and a crazy guy walked by. I don’t mean that he behaved like a crazy person. I mean he really is not sane, judging from the hair and clothing and the way he separates himself from the rest of the world. He walked slowly, step by hesitant step. He stopped. Stood like a statue and stared. Turned around. Walked. Turned around again. He was stick thin, unwashed, uncombed, and barefoot. He looked hungry. He checked out an empty Coca Cola bottle. He went into a bakery and went out empty handed. I felt so sorry for him. But I was also scared of crazy people in general. I wanted to give him some food. But what if he attacked me?

In the end I thought I’d feel very bad for the rest of the day if I didn’t do anything. So I went to the bakery and bought two croissants. I caught up with the guy and squeaked, “Bread?” He took it and I walked away. I felt quite proud of myself. I did something good that day. I got on the bus and we passed that spot again. The man was not there anymore, but there were two croissants and an empty plastic bag scattered on the side-walk. And two street cleaner promptly swept them off and threw them in the bin.

Home Alone

It’s hard to believe that it’s been four weeks since I started house-sitting in Croydon. It’s a roomy 2-story townhouse. For me, who has all my life been surrounded by siblings, nieces and nephews, relatives near or far, it’s very difficult to be on my own in an empty house. It’s made worse because I work at home. I don’t have workplace friends. There were days when I didn’t see anybody or talk to anybody at all. That’s fine every once in a while, but when it’s on a regular basis on a long period of time, you’d get a bit of cabin fever. So whenever I found I’ve left something at my apartment, I pretended to grumble but then I happily went back to visit the apartment.

The first two weeks I couldn’t sleep soundly. I kept hearing creaks and sqeaks and thumps and I worried that somebody was trying to break in. Then one day while I was mopping the floor, the mop fell and made a loud noise. I thought, if I lean that mop stick on the door, like the old-wives-tale of using a broom to repell burglar, that would make a nice alarm system. But then, there are three doors and three windows downstairs. Which one do I booby-trap? All? Every night? That’s ridiculuous. I wish I were MacGyver. I went upstairs to my room to look for inspiration. A chair, a desk, a bed, a lamp post. Useless. But hey, the chair, the bed, the door. The bed, the chair, the door. That might work! I wedged the chair between the door and the bed. Nobody could enter without waking me up (theoretically) unless they enter from the window. But since the room is on the second floor, it’s rather unlikely (I hope). That night I slept like a baby for the first time in two weeks.