Every holiday I had, opa and I would usually go out at afternoons to have a late lunch or have brunch. He would take me to new places or just to eat at our favorite restaurants. Every waitress in every restaurant recognized him and always said "sama cucu ya pak..." and he always replied yes and gave them the happiest smile. however,i was only around 10 or 11 that time,and every time we ate, we rarely spoke to each other. It was rather awkward not speaking to each other but I felt grateful to have a wonderful grandfather. We went to shabu shabu house ex once every week for 3 weeks. I remembered because we always walked from plaza Indonesia to ex, and ate hotdogs at dairy queen first. we always had the same hotdog. triple cheese hotdog.we both loved it and we ended up having a mess. then we would walk around ex first, (as it was new at the time) and after we looked here and there, we would go straight to shabu shabu house.
For quite some time, we went out for lunch every day and at dinner we didn’t eat too much. We went to places only once except for shabu-shabu house and hotdogs at dairy queen. For example, kirishima at gran melia, spagethi house at ps, and manya other places.everytime he asked me he would say "ver...Opa lagi mau makan (....) nanti ada les?yoo lekas loo ganti baju temen opa yuukk" I always remember his face asking me this. if I had lessons later that afternoon, we would go somewhere not far away from home.
I don't know whether he sensed something, or felt something, but at our last lunch, we were both craving for steak at angus house. and he asked for the last time,"ver..ga ada les kan?lekas ganti baju yuk opa mau makan di angus house...” it was early february,1 or 2 days before he left for the last time to Singapore. he looked worried, sad that day. but he ate a lot, and we were both satisfied I can tell.
after the day he left, a few weeks later, my mom got a phone call from dad george."tekanan darah opa naik".somehow,we packed our bags and bought plane tickets at the airport.we arrived there,and rushed to the hospital.everyone said "lucy,val,try not to cry in front of opa".but as I walked in and saw opa,i said "opa..hui-hui disini,opa cepet sembuh" and he smiled as he saw me,and nodded giving us a serious look,and smiled again.opa asked a lot about what time it is and always asked to go home. His hands were always warm, as we all took turns holding his right hand, oma always held his left hand.we stayed there for a week, stayed in an apartment behind wisma atria.everyday we went to the hospital, and waited.i slept there only once.
2 days before we went home,sakopo and sikopo came there.it was really a moment where everyone cried.sakopo heard bad news from ieie i remembered,and she started to say while crying "dju....cpt sembuh lah dju.....jangan dju..." everyone tried to calm her down,but everyone also started crying. after we went home, for a couple of days, mom went back.i stayed home with mbak sar.on April 1st,it was april fools day.it was devastating at school as i was the one being poked around,and made fun of.at home,after i finished all my school work,i was reminiscing the jokes at school,it was actually quite funny.at around 7 (or 8?) pm i got a phone call from mom.she called everyday and I thought it was a normal phone call.i was in my room with mbak sar (not the person i wanna be with at the time,but she was supportive.mbak iyem was in spore ) and picked up the phone.mom said.. "Val, how are you? Val, sekarang...opa udah ga ada..opa udh mninggal..." and all i said was, "apa??boong.haa????" we were on the phone for 3 short minutes and after i put the phone down,i told mbak sar.she hugged me back and said "tabah ya val..tabah" and she gave me loads of tissue. I called ci sharlene at once, and we cried and cried and cried and analyzed what the hell just happened.it was april fool's day and we thought it was a prank the parents made to us.but it was just to mean.at the time i had no idea what happened to opa, but ci sharlene said "my dad said something is eating his lungs".
they all got back the next day.and we were all wearing white shirts and black pants.we waited at the airport and when i saw my mom,she ran and we ran and we hugged and we cried.it was hard,as i rarely speak to him,or know more about him.
3 rooms were set for opa at atma jaya.it was covered with white sheets, and tons of food and flowers. it smelled of pandan leaves and jasmine.ci noni wasn't there. There were a lot of people, everyone dear to opa's heart. Our families from malaysia, singapore and medan came to jakarta, to say goodbye.the hardest part from all of this was, when they had to close opa's coffin.it was the last time i would see his face aside from pictures.
We buried him at rancamaya the next day and all of his grandchildren decorated his grave with beautiful flowers. I remember i finished almost one box of tissue because i was crying so much for the week.
teachers asked me to share how i felt about all of this the next day at school and i said "i will miss him so dearly but i know he is watching me"