TRUE

Have you ever met people, although it was only once, but the impact lasted longer than the brief meeting?

Met this old couple many many years ago. They were relatives to my late mother. Never heard of their name, only visited them once and all and didn’t really remember for what reason.

This husband and wife lived modestly, their house was cramped and a bit dark. They had no child, but, they dedicated themselves to take care the kids who were trying to heal from drugs. They lived in Kampung Ambon, an area where it was famous for drugs user. What they did was taking care of those children, brought them to a mosque where he became a chairman, and tried their best to make life better for the kids.

I have never seen ones who have so little yet seem so peaceful.

The last news I had many years ago, the husband passed away on his wife’s lap while listening to Quran the wife read.

The visit to their small home was only around an hour. But, I still remembered the exact word and expression the husband said to everyone.

“The key to a good, strong, and happy marriage is TRUE,”. He said it in Bahasa Indonesia.

He raised his old wrinkled hand and showed four fingers, then closed it one by one,

“Trust. Respect. Understanding. Empathy, It should be in that order”.

He said those in a proper English accent.

His wisdom, the meeting on that day, lived rent free in my mind since then.