Long Overdue Visit

This afternoon, I paid a long overdue visit to my mother's grave. It's been at least thirteen years since I've been there. While the Malay culture "encourages" us to visit graves of our beloved dead, I grew up in a family where such a culture is not strong...but then, my family is not the typical Malay family.

My father encourages us to think for ourselves and question cultural norms. Grave visit is not really necessary in order to pray over the dead. In Islam, grave visits are encouraged only so that we, the living, might be reminded of our own imminent death. In death, only three things do any of us take with us; our good deeds, the knowledge that we passed on to others, and the prayers of our children. As children, we should ask God for forgiveness and His blessings for our parents. But this need not be done at the gravesite itself but constantly in our prayers.

So anyway, what made me go? My late mother's relatives, my Aunt Helen and Uncle Allan, asked if they could pay respects...so my dad, step-mom, and I went there this afternoon to ensure that we got the right grave and to do a bit of cleaning around the grave before bringing them over next weekend.

Well, its not an exciting weekend...next weekend would be more exciting, I think, since I will start my scuba diving lesson. Really looking forward to that.

Peace,
Sid