Today marks the 28th day of her passing, and I really wanted to share the story of her life with Oppo
Aisyah.
I’m the one who give her her name, you know. I found a magazine with the same name when my mother was pregnant with her. I asked my parents if it’s okay to named my still-unborn sister Aisyah, as I think it’s a cute name, and I hope she’d be as cute as her name. And she was.
She’s actually should be the third children in our family, but my mother had a miscarriage. I was just entered the first grade. At that time, I joked to my parents that maybe God recalled my sister to make her even cuter and smarter than before. He probably thought that she’s still not good enough for us and strived to create an even better one. A few months later, my mother got pregnant again. My sister was estimated to be born at the end of my first grade. I still remember my homeroom teacher announced that I’d have a sister in the near future, and my classmates were clapping and congratulating me.
My mother was admitted to a navy hospital in downtown, the same hospital where I was born. However, while I was born in natural way (I mean without any operation), my mother should undergone c-section to birth my sister. I remember my grandparents picked me up from the school on a Thursday afternoon to go to the hospital. My father was already there. When we arrived, we met my mother lying on the bed being pushed to the surgical room. I can’t remember how long did we wait. I don’t think it reached an hour.
Then, the operation room opened and a nurse was holding a baby. The baby didn’t cry, but rather their eyes were wide open, looking around at their surrounding, looking interested. I had a brief thought that if only that baby was my sister. They looked so cute. Then the sister announced that it’s indeed the daughter of Mr. Rameli. I couldn’t believe it – the baby was my sister! I remember my father trembled holding my sister, and whispered the adzan – the Muslim’s call to prayer – to her right ear. I think it’s the equivalent of baptism to Christianity? Anyway, you get the idea.
I’ve always put a laissez-faire approach when supervising my sister. When she’s a baby, she loved to disassemble piles of stuff in our house. She’d create an avalanche of objects, then she’d inspect them one by one. Meanwhile, I was lying on the couch watching TV. She also did some weird stuff, like putting herself on a basket, for some reason? I love it though. I always laugh every time I see the pictures, even until now.
Other than being cute, my sister showed her intelligence when she grew up. When she’s in the sixth grade (the final year of elementary school in Indonesia), she joined me to take TOEFL ITP (Test of English as a Foreign Language – Institutional Testing Program) to accompany our cousin who was about to graduate. I just entered the university, and we were required to take the same test too, which I got the score of 587. The passing grade for bachelor students is 477, so I didn’t have to worry about my English test. This was my sister’s first English test, and for the umpteenth time for my cousin. All of the exam’s participants were students who were about to graduate, and my sister and I were the two youngest person in the exam room.
Aisyah and our cousin that I'm talking about
There are 3 sections for the TOEFL test; listening, grammar, and reading. You’re not allowed to proceed to the next section, and have to wait for the instruction from the invigilator. My sister didn’t know that, and she got asleep after finished working at the grammar section and waiting to move to the next section. The invigilator woke her up 30 minutes before the exam ended, asking if she already finished her test, which of course not. She answered hurriedly until the exam ended. My cousin and I teased her about it which upset her, but in the end she got the last laugh. I received 590, which I think is just 1 more correct answer compared with my previous test. My cousin got 420 something, which means he had to take the test again. My sister? She got 507, higher than some of the other bachelor students. When I was in sixth grade, I also took the same TOEFL test and only got 420.
Other than her predigious English skill, she’s also brilliant in school. She joined several competitions and won some of them. She was even interviewed on the local newspaper – here’s the article. It’s written in Indonesian, but I found Google Chrome’s translate to English feature works well. Her competitive trait was continued until she graduated senior high school (grade 10 to 12). She loved participating in competition to make posters or infographics, or being the illustrator for group projects. I have to share them here to you on separate post because her drawing is incredible. I even modified one of her illustration for my phone’s wallpaper.
(Left) Aisyah wearing a crown because she's a queen. (Right) Holding her award-winning poster
Holding her beloved Void
My father, my sister, me, and our maternal grandmother after my graduation ceremony
Oh I just remember that she made several funny pictures about Bunbun, though I could only managed to find two of them:
I have to tell you that she lurked on Oppo too. I’ve always wanted her to make an account and introduced herself – I’m sure Oppo would welcome her here. She asked some questions about Oppo, and here are 3 that I can remember:
- What is hour rule, and why is Pip-bip the only one to do that?
- Why did all of the posts are about red cars? (I think it’s because of theme day several months ago)
- Why does Just-jeepin keep making posts about Jeep accessories? Is he going to buy one?
I think I have to end here. It’s already 900-something words. I’ll continue on a separate post about the rest of her life through the end of senior high school to university.