Had my weekly conversation with Wan recently, and after a while she asked me about how the renovation is coming along. Well, I guess progress report is much needed as she is my
main project financier (
interest-free loan, enough said!). We were talking about the timeline and all when she asked when will I go back to Besut again. According to her, there is a cabinet full of dinner sets and tea sets just collecting dust in her house. I am rather touched with her gesture and excited too, for it will not only compliment the set I am currently using but I will also own some antique sets that Wan collected during the British occupancy. I can't wait for my next drive home, and a chance to visit Wan & Ki's house is always something I look forward to.
My grandparents' house is situated right at the crossroad coming from either
Jerteh or
Penarik. For people who were born in
Kampung Raja, their house is a place that most of them can relate to. I remembered it to be a house always full of visitors, be it Ki's ex-students, Wan's friends or even strangers who wanted to buy orchids from the garden. In fact, when I met an ex-VP from my company recently, she spoke about how she used to love coming over to my grandparents' house just to look at the orchids! Since Ki was quite a well-known teacher in his time, and Wan was active in
Wanita Umno, most of their visitors came from all over the country.
This wooden house, was ahead of its time when it was first built. Ki always had a modern outlook on things even way back then. The architecture, the landscape and even the interior was not of those typical ones you would expect of a kampung house. However, it is at the same time it looks as traditional as the house next door! They had an outdoor tool shed, a small pond (
which cousin Yati used to desribe as a swimming pool to her then fiancé!), rows and rows of orchid plants and a few bird cages as big as our rooms! For us kids, that house was like
THE place to go during school holidays.
I remember the numerous family gatherings we had there, especially when Ki was still around. The nine
Cucu Che'gu Ali (
Teacher Ali's grandchildren) would swim (yup, actually swim!) in the pool, frequent the
Kedai Gmart across the road, and run freely in Wan's garden like there's no tomorrow
*T, you weren't born yet this time*.
Abang, being the only child before I came along, stayed in Kg. Raja for weeks whenever he followed Ki home.
Haley, lived with them there for about a year when her parents went abroad. And yours truly, was also a frequent visitor - tailing Abang whenever he decided to jump into Ki's
White Fiat to go to Besut. Although we have tonnes of pictures from our visits, I can see them as clear as day in my head whenever I think of that house. I think one of my earliest memories would come from there - hiding from Ki and Wan in one of their decorative
'lege' (those cement round things which they use for wells), without me realising they took a picture of us inside it! That and one of collecting
buoh kemuting in the bushes outside the gate.
The visits became less and less frequent after Ki fell sick and even more so after he passed away. Mama and my uncles later decided for Wan to stay with us, since no one was around anymore to look after her in Besut. Gone were the orchids and the garden that was once Ki and Wan's pride and joy. We closed the house, and it was heart-breaking to see Wan's tears upon leaving the place where she and Ki built their lives. Most of the things in the house is still intact, and whenever we visit we still stay there. It is just a bit sad that whenever we go back, the once-grand-manor looks unattended and empty.
Nevertheless, that house is nostalgic to many. I can't help but smile in delight when met some of Ki's old pupils (some of whom still visit Wan) and they relate their own memories there. And some of them still stop by just to look at the house whenever they pass through Kampung Raja and pass the stories to their children and grandchildren.
Which I will do too, one fine day.
Insya Allah..
