Good-bye Auntie

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I just received a phone call from my daughter a few minutes ago. She told me that my Auntie, Tengku Eusnie Binti Tengku Mohd Yusof, has just died. It seems she died in Singapore and will be laid to rest in the Royal Mausoleum in Shah Alam after lunch (Zohor) today.

Auntie Eusnie was the wife of Raja Dato’ Arshad Bin Raja Sir Tun Uda Al Haj, my late father’s younger brother. Arshad, fondly known in the family as Uncle Payung, was Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s classmate in the Malay College Kuala Kangsar back in the 1960s.

Eusnie was my favourite Auntie. Undeniably, she was the most glamorous member of our family and an extremely charming lady, true to her status as a daughter of the Negeri Sembilan Royal Family. If ever there was a Malaysian equivalent of the legendary Lady Diana that would, without a doubt, be my Auntie Eusnie.

Words can never describe my sorrow at not being able to send you off today, Auntie Eusnie. I can’t do more than just shamelessly shed my tears at your departure. I cry for you, Auntie Eusnie. I will miss you terribly. It pains me that I can’t personally say good-bye to you other than through this article.

I know you worried about me and you always feared that I would die in incarceration without we ever being able to meet again. Fate has dealt a most cruel blow indeed by separating us without giving us a chance to meet one last time. And it is you who left me when your heart was troubled with the thought that it would be I who would leave you.

Good-bye Auntie. I love you and will always love you till the end of time. May God have mercy on your soul.

Al-fatihah.