Aris Abas has died.
Asiah called at about 3 p.m. with the sad news. A couple of hours later Kamariah also called. She was on her way to Jengka 23, Pahang, where the burial would take place later to-day. She didn't know if she'd make it on time, but I said she has to go anyway.
Dekna and I were visiting ailing Thareez, at KPJ Seremban when Asiah called. Thareez had chest pains Sunday, and this afternoon continues with further tests. On admission the bp was very high. Just now he was waiting to be scanned, because the heartbeat is very fast, about 90 ! The earlier prognosis was it could be an infection.
Aris was the older of the two sons of the late Mak Ngah Ramlah, who was from Kelang, that she had before she married the late Pak Ngah Othman, my late mother's second oldest brother, thus "Angah" or "Tengah", meaning "middle." Aris' younger brother, Arif, lives in Taman Permata, Ulu Kelang.
Ramlee, Zainab, Asiah, Azizah and Kamariah were born from the wedlock with Pak Ngah. Azizah, the fourth child, passed away some years ago, from cancer. Ramlee and Kamariah are in KL, Asiah in Rawang, and Zainab, now a widow, is in Johor Baru. Her husband died some time back from severe diebetic complications.
Pak Ngah's marriage to Mak Ngah Ramlah was also his second one. He had a daughter, Zainapsiah, from his first marriage in Senaling, Kuala Pilah. Zainapsiah has also died from cancer not too long ago. She was a retiree in Bangi.
I first met Aris when Pak Ngah was staying at the Police barracks at Kampong Attap, Kuala Lumpur, not far from the KL railway station. The first famous badminton hall in KL was at Kampong Attap also. I must have been in primary school then. Aris was older than me. One morning during one of our overnight visits he took me to watch him play football across town, all the way at TPCA stadium near the KL General Hospital. And he was on a bicycle while I walked !
When I was in Felda, Aris also worked in Felda as a Supervisor in one of the schemes, but later resigned to become a Felda settler at Jengka 23, where he passed away to-day. All the Jengka schemes were given the names of flowers by Raja Alias, but I can't remember what flower Jengka 23 is. This Raja Alias proclivity for "flowering" was carried over into MISC when he was Chairman there, naming all the ships commissioned in his tenure after flowers. I didn't find a "Bunga Taik Ayam" though, when I joined MISC in 1991.
A bit later in Felda, when I was running the Transport Corporation, I made Aris the ffb transport supervisor for Jengka, and gave him a small four-wheel-drive Suzuki for his work. The job meant extra income for him. I even had his name painted on the door of the Suzuki, as it was done for the others in the other "Wilayahs". The idea was to give a personal feeling for the vehicles given, so they would take care of them like their own.
All the marriages of his daughters were held in Jengka 23, and I think I attended all of them. In fact I also attended his own wedding to Imah in Kelang when he got married. He had a son, Bob, whom I liked, but tragically he was killed in an accident early in his Felda settler days.
The last time I met Aris was at a wedding reception in KL. I don't think he was sick at that time, but at one of our relatives' wedding reception a couple of years ago I got to know that he was ill, because he didn't attend. I'll forever regret not making a visit once I knew that he was indeed very sick. His brother told me then that he had made a few visits to Jengka 23, that he already had to have assissted breathing 24 hours a day. When he died this afternoon it was at the hospital in Jengka town.
The step-brothers were never treated less than like real siblings by all the brothers and sisters. Mak Ngah Ramlah was also an aunty I felt close to, although Pak Ngah was always less than talkative, though no less friendly. No matter what time we came for a visit, and they were frequent, at all the places they stayed - the flat before going to Kampong Attap, Kampong Attap and later the Jalan Travers Police Barracks (now demolished), and when Pak Ngah retired, in Datuk Keramat - Mak Ngah Ramlah would quickly cook up something, and her "sambal tumis" was always the "best in the world!" Even when my brother and I were studying at the university, we would often come to the Jalan Travers barracks. The university at Jalan Pantai is a short distance from this location.
Good bye, Aris. I'll miss you. May God have mercy on you.
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