We cried for you.....................!!!

Roza,.....

Mahdi...

....Luthfi

Maureen..

.....Tazkia

Roza,.....

Mahdi...

....Luthfi

Maureen..

.....Tazkia

Roza,.....

Mahdi...

....Luthfi

Maureen..

.....Tazkia

Roza,.....

Mahdi...

....Luthfi

Maureen..

.....Tazkia

It was the NEW YEAR evening of 2005, when I wrote this message:

Dear All:

On behalf of the whole family, I would like to thank you all for your sympathy and support ....... We really appreciate all your e-mails, SMS, phone calls, visits, prayers.... all of which were really helpful to lighten our burden of sadness. I would like to share with you a couple of lines about my youngest sister Roza. She was born in June 19, 1965 when the country was about to face a deep trouble. So she was not even 40 years old when  she died last week. 

She met her husband Mahdi Abrar when they both were taking their Masters degrees at Oregon State University (OSU), Corvallis OR. My sister continued her study in Corvallis, OR, and got her Ph.D.in 1994. Her husband is a veterinarian, completed his Ph.D. in Bogor later after they got married in 1992. They both took teaching positions at Syiah Kuala University in the city of Banda Aceh (look at the pictures taken from the satellite above, Banda Aceh before and after the tsunami), where all Mahdi's close relatives resided. 

God Almighty has clearly warned us, He said (in  8:25):

..... and guard against that mischief which will not bring punishment in particular to the mischief-makers alone from among you, and know that Allah is severe in inflicting punishment......... (translated by Abu'l Ala Maududi)

.......and fear the trial! Which affecteth not in particular (only) those of you who do wrong, and know that Allah is strict to punishment ...... (translated by Yusuf Ali)

A couple of days before Christmas, Roza and Mahdi went to Jakarta for a research seminar or something. They left their three children (their 10 years eldest son Luthfi and his little sisters Maureen and Tazkia) with Mahdi's sister in Banda  Aceh. After the seminar, they spent a couple of days with my dad in Bogor. When we called them from Makassar on Christmas Eve, my brother, my two sisters and their families were having dinner together with my dad. They were very happy ...... My daughter Dhika was among them, she was the only one from my family who joined the happy moment, because her sister Rena was in Malaysia.

On Christmas Day, Roza and Mahdi left Bogor, took the plane in Jakarta flying to Banda Aceh via Medan. Mahdi decided to stay overnight in Medan because he got something to do there on Monday. He planned to go home to Banda Aceh on Tuesday. My sister Roza went right away to Banda Aceh. She spoke with my dad in the phone short after she arrived at Banda Aceh. The children missed their mom very much because it was the first time she left them for rather a long time.

Well, we are not sure what happened next, but most probably Roza spent the whole day and night with her children, opening gifts she brought home from Bogor, etc. When they got up in the morning, their house was suddenly shaken by the earthquake. They went outside like everybody else, but then people were running and screaming because the tidal wave was after them. In panic, Roza took her children into their car just to make a try to protect them from the water. But the water came too fast and too strong, Luthfi did not even make it to get into the car. The door probably was slammed by the water, and Luthfi was thrown and  swept away.......miraculously, amazingly, unbelievably.... God Almighty has saved him through someone's hand, and apparently survived the disaster. 

A couple of days later we heard that they found my sister's dead body still in the car with her children. Mahdi's extended families who lived in the neighborhood, including his parent, his brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins,.....all died. When they collect all the bodies, only two were missing. One is Mahdi's, who was in Medan when it happened, and the other one was first thought to be his brother, but turned out later to be his son Luthfi. The father and son are the only survivors among their extended families who lived in the neighborhood.(There were two or three different versions of the story. My friend who visited Banda Aceh in the second week of January 2005 found there are 3 (three) survivors: Mahdi, his son Luthfi and Mahdi's younger brother Maimun, who also lost his wife and three children. Maimun's house is next to Mahdi's. According to Maimun, he was trying to open the car's door for his own family and Roza with her three children when the water came and washed them away. He was sure that no one managed to get into the car. Therefore he wasn't sure that Roza's body was found inside the car. Like his wife, Roza's body was supposed to be found somewhere else. Anyway ............).

What I believe is that my sister Roza has done all her main duties as an academician, a daughter, a wife and a mother, in the last days of her life. She presented her research paper to fulfill her academic duty, then she visited her father and made him happy, went to her mother's grave, then went home to spend the night with her children. And at the last moment of her life, she was trying hard to save the lifes of her two little daughters. She also miraculously "sent" her son to her husband, so that the generation did not stop there .......May all their souls rest in peace, may God Almighty accept their deeds and forgive their sins....

Life goes on, right or wrong, loosing and gaining, ....... so let's just start another New Year!