The piece you are about to read is a short narration of a personal story of an old woman who is 71 years old. She introduced herself as Mrs. Biyu Aiguo who has lived in Alam Damai area of Cheras for over 15 years. And at her age she has gone to school up till University level. To be honest she did not say much because the interview was conducted while she was not feeling too well and age too could not let her go into details. I asked her what was wrong with her and she told me that she had Goiter which is defined as the enlargement of the thyroid gland appearing as swelling of the front of the neck. Iodine deficiency is one of several causes. And thus her speech was difficult to understand due to the surgery she had to remove the Goiter. She told a tale of her late husband who died many years ago, but the love she has for him could not let her love any other man, she still loves her late husband Mr. Aiguo. “I still love my husband, he was my first love and only love.” She said. “We met and fell in love while we were both still young that piece of memory is unforgettable”. She went on “I am old now and I stay with my daughter who is married to a Nigerian”. The daughter and her husband (popularly known as Yellow) own an African restaurant in Taman Connaught Cheras and she usually goes there just to have some company. “My daughter is the co-owner of the African restaurant called Goody Foody in Taman Connaught”. The restaurant caters mostly for Africans since it is a bar cum restaurant. She said the restaurant/bar also has a lot of history. The restaurant in question was opened for business in mid 2007 and ever since it has grown into a night spot for Africans living in Malaysia as the menu serves mostly African food. She said the Africans come there to eat and drink, she told me that she has witnessed fights at the bar which resulted in closing down the place. She recalls one particular incident of how a reporter was attacked last Ramadan when she was filming the activities of the bar; these angered the ‘drunken’ customers who in turn seized and broke the camera of a TV3 reporter Puspavathy Ramaloo. That incident she said led to the arrest of her daughter and husband until they took an undertaking never to allow such thing happen and paid a fine. She told me that the restaurant is what is sustaining her daughter as a lot of customers patronize the joint.
Then she asked me if I wanted to hear something else and I said sure why not then she told me she is too old now and sick so she couldn’t say much but she wanted to. The only reason why she was allowed to talk to me on her sick bed for just 10minutes is because she has African friends who she met in the African restaurant and because I told them I am a student who wanted to do a project of this nature. She says “I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I’m old and this
sickness is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know."
As I leaned closer she cleared her throat and began, "We do not stop playing because we are old we grow old because we stop playing.
There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it. There is a difference between growing older and growing up”.
I became confused as to why she would end it like this, with this kind of advice to me! What did she sense? Obviously she is too old but that don’t mean she should give up on life just yet. She had family and friends who always come to see her every day. After saying that her daughter told me that it is enough “mama would like to rest now”. So I obliged I could see that she is not feeling too well. I thanked them and left, but I never stopped thinking of her words “find humor every day”.
As it is I wanted to probe deeper to find out more from an old lady like that but her sickness stood in my way and the people who stood around us were not helping. I had to let it go at that because there was nothing I could do. I m not totally happy either, because an old lady like that would have so much stories to tell if the circumstances that prevented her speech weren’t there. But I am glad I had this little time to interact with a 71 year old woman named Biyu Aiguo.
