Saya forward-kan cerita ringan yang muncul dalam Kayupasak Newsletter.
Buletin ini diterbitkan secara berkala dan dikirimkan kepada pemberi
beasiswa yang tinggal di Jepang, Amerika, dan Eropa.
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A Grandmother's Heart
by edizal
As a well-known seamstress in my region of villages, Uci (which is the
name people call my grandmother) frequently visited one place or the
other for teaching. She conveyed her knowledge about stitching and
embroidering to pupils using a simple needle or a sewing machine. Since
the cost of a sewing machine is very expensive for villagers, if I am not
wrong, Uci was the only one who managed to buy one. So many people came
to my house for having dusters and dresses sewn, besides requesting to
learn how to sew clothes.
People who came to ask for help usually did not offer her money. Instead,
they gave her various kinds of goods, such as rice, vegetables or other
farm products. This bartering offer more or less helped our household's
economic situation that was on the wane after my grandfather passed away
and my mother pursued her study in the city (which took 2 days to reach,
namely one day of walking from our village to a small town, then taking a
bus to the town of Bukittinggi, and changing the bus for another one to
the city of Padang).
My mother, who was spoiled as a child by her parents and lived happily
during her early years of marriage, suddenly changed her character after
my father divorced her. She exerted tremendous discipline over herself,
removed the entry spoiled from her living dictionary and decided to
pursue her study in the city for the sake of her two sons' future. Uci
had to struggle by herself to work hard for a living in the village and
for my mother living in Padang. When my mother moved, I was consequently
raised under the umbrella of Uci's guidance. My parents' divorce
separated me from my older brother who was taken away to live with my
father in a faraway village. My father was the only child in his family,
and his parents were the richest couple in their village. So, my brother
and I Iived under extremely different conditions.
When I was born, my father, who was enraptured by the love of another
woman, did not bother at all to see my arrival into the world and did not
care about my development, particularly since I Iived with Uci. Surely,
Uci and my mother felt a tremendous burden due to his behavior. But, as
far as I know, Uci never spoke a single bad word about my father.
Besides, she tried to turn my attention away from this situation and
poured her affection into her fatherless grandson.
Uci's beautiful virtue tvhs to refrain from speaking ill of others. I
realized the core of the virtue more after I grew up. If we want to talk
bad about someone, the best thing to do is talk in front of the person,
not behind their backs. This way, one can be responsible for what one
said. On account of this, I tend to keep away from anyone who likes to
talk bad about others because there is a big possibility that the person
will talk bad about me behind my back, too.
Since I was rarely far from her side, people called me grandma's son. I
did not play much with my little friends because I felt such happiness to
be together with Uci. But, as the start of elementary school days drew
near, time spent with Uci diminished, and time with my friends grew.
Quarrelling while playing with my peers made a big impact on my mental
and physical development. It was a kind of preparation to face challenges
and uncertainties in the future. Quarrelling, and even sometimes
fighting, with my friends created an uneasy atmosphere, but being with
Uci always gave me a sense of security and comfortable feeling.
Uci almost never left me alone at home. She always took me to many
places, even though she had to hold my hand to walk on pebble roads or
along paths in the jungle. Since we were always barefoot, our feet were
relatively wider, and the bottom of our feet was thicker compared to city
people who wore sandals or shoes every day. Obviously, wide and thick
feet were the result of adaptation to our environment so that sharp
pebbles along the road would not cut into the soles of them.
Uci's customary practice was to whisper for a while before leaving our
house to travel a long distance. The words she used for praying for our
safety were unknown to me and seemed to be like Minangkabau language. Her
strong belief in the effect of prayers made her fearless to enter the
jungle where many wild animals dwelled, such as boars, elephants, tigers,
bears, and others. As a very young boy, I was naturally drawn to being
somewhat afraid in the jungle. Thick leaves on the big tall trees were a
hindrance as the sunlight touched the path to make the jungle's
environment rather cold and dark. But, the belief in Uci's prayer
powerfully surrounded my body and removed unnecessary
