The first 3 months was going really well. My eczema .was pretty stabilized- I think you could almost say I was Happy. I manged to pass three supplementary exams in 2 days which I wrote in January. I was on track for my degree which meant I could have graduated this year.
Until the 31 March. Officially the worst day of my life. It's inevitable that I'm going to cry while writing this post. Not the silent-one-tear-running-down-one-of-my-eyes type of the crying, more like excessive tears with horrible sound effects. To make things worst, I just put on music and the first song that played was an Indian song (Anything Indian reminds me of my daddy)
I don't remember much during the last week of my fathers presence on earth. Thank you horrible memory. On the Sunday we went to a Sonu Nigam concert, my daddy was very out of breath, but other than that it didn't seem too serious. He even went to the medical tent there and got himself checked out, and he told me they said nothing was wrong with him when I went to check on him. I was sitting with my mommy watching the concert, while my daddy was outside with my family who had food stalls at the concert. Eventually we decided to leave, I offered to drive because my daddy wasn't in a good condition. He didn't let me :(
I don't recall Monday or Tuesday, I do remember Tuesday night. He decided to check himself into hospital for the night. He was packing his bags, I remember giving him one bottle water for him to take with him. My uncle was taking my father to the hospital and since it was really late at night my mother wasn't too keen. But my father really wanted her to come with and told her to just throw on something and go with. So she did and went with. I'm so glad she went.
The next day. I went to campus as usual. My niece was scheduled to have an operation on this day. I asked my brother how my daddy and my niece were doing. He said daddy was scheduled to have an x-ray that morning. He also told me to stop stressing over daddy and the baby.
I don't remember the exact sequence of phone calls and events. I was sitting in an Information Systems tutorial in Alumbi labs, when I received/made a phone call. I had spoken to either my mother or brother that my daddy was weak and that I should come to the hospital. Right at that moment my heart sank and I started to tear up. I didn't know how to get to the hospital, so I texted my cousin to take me and he texted me to meet at Jammie steps in 10 minutes. I asked my friend Mei to walk with me, because I was crying and I didn't want to walk alone.
I met my cousin and we drove to the hospital. I cried all the way. He dropped me at the entrance of Vincent Pallotti hospital and went to go park. I saw my brother at the entrance, his eyes were teary and red. Then he told me the worst thing someone can ever hear. I don't remember the exact words, but it was something along the lines of that "he's gone". I was too late. I never got to say goodbye. My heart never experienced such pain and heartache in my life. My father was gone and their was nothing else I could do but cry. I couldn't bring him back. I couldn't go back in time so that I'd make it in time. I walked with my brother to the elevator in an extremely traumatised state. We arrived on the right floor and some of the family was waiting in the lounge. I went into the ward where my daddy was. He was laying on the bed as if he were sleeping. My mommy was in tears sitting on the chair with my brother in-law comforting her. I gave my daddy one last kiss on the cheek.
After a while I got home and we had to prepare for the Mayat/Janaazah (funeral). Islamic funerals usually happens on the same day. My daddy had to be bathed and dressed in white cloth (Kafan). Later my daddy was put in the the middle of the front room., where people said their last goodbyes. My daddy looked peaceful and handsome. He was smiling too:) After all the dua's (prayers) were made my brother had to close the rest of his face with the cloth. This was it. The last time I'd physically see my daddy. My mommy watched my daddy being taken away from the window, since she was not allowed to leave the house.
It was all downhill from here.
