Sombre mood at old folks' home as 'takbir raya' echoes

KUANTAN - The wait feels endless and residents of Seri Permai Old Folks Home at Taman Tas here can only hope for their families and relatives to visit them to aid the feeling of longing.

However, the hope can sometimes just be a dream as some of them have no other family members, separated or expelled from their own family.

The longing for their family members had never gone away but instead got stronger as Hari Raya Aidilfitri approached.

Zaki Abdullah, 51, from Kota Bharu, Kelantan admits that he missed his family and wanted to meet them after 30 years apart.

He said prior to living at the old folk home, he tried to track his family members at a village in Kota Bharu several times but the effort was left in vain and he ended up being a resident of the home.

“I always feel homesick when Aidilfitri approached. For 30 years, I suppressed my feelings and up until this day I have yet to see the face of my father, mother and other siblings. I don’t even know if they were still alive or not.

"Every night I will cry thinking about when I can meet my family again. Several efforts were made to track them down but failed, and I don’t even know if I will get to meet them as I am getting older too,” he told Sinar Harian when met at the old folk home on Wednesday.

Zaki said living without his family members was painful as the feelings of yearning to be with family members flooded in and he needed to battle them, especially as Aidilfitri approached ‘takbir raya’ echoes.

However, he said life goes on and he was glad that the management and other residents at the old folks' home were like a big family.

Meanwhile, Abdullah Mohamad, 60, said he had just joined the home for five months. Before this, he lived in an unkept house at Batu Lapan, Gambang here.

He said, if there was a choice, he wanted to spend the remainder of his life living with his family members but accepted his fate that he was now one of the residents at the care centre.

"Its been more than 30 years since I last saw my loved ones and celebrate Aidilfitri with them. I do not know until when I would be here but I still hope that I would get to meet my siblings before I died," said the man who hailed from Tanah Merah, Kelantan.

Another resident Abdul Syukur Abdul Kasim, 57 from Perak admitted that he missed his three children.

Syukur said due to Movement Control Order two years ago, he had not met his kids.

"I never blamed destiny when I was forced to live here after divorcing my wife four years ago.

“My siblings sent me here because there was nobody to look after me, but I believe everything happened for a reason and only Allah knows why,” he said.