Roaring Forties

24 June

2.00 p.m. – We visited Wiwy at the hospital and she was fine but the hospital needed her to go through a psychiatric evaluation to confirm that she was not suicidal or depressed. If the report is positive, then I would be probably charged with maid abuse. At the hospital during the day when Wiwy was admitted, May was interrogated in detail about Wiwy’s overdosed condition. It was even suggested at the hospital to May that Wiwy could have poisoned my Mother and then she panicked and tried to commit suicide.

For someone who is paranoid, such a suggestion would have brought the house down. Anyway life is too complicated to be caught up with far fetched theories. My mother’s been buried and though out Wiwy’s stay with us, I have not detected any abuse or any problems with them. So why ponder over the absurd.

Nevertheless, we did ask Wiwy why she took so much Panadol. She said that she was scared and had a headache. She took the Panadol pills to get rid of the headache and when it continued, she continued taking more Panadol.

My friend Moses who owned a factory in Indonesia and confirmed that most of his workers popped aspirin like candies. The reason for this trend is that the aspirin dosage in Indonesia is much lower than ours which means that they had to take two or three pills to get the same potency equivalent to one of ours.

Second, the Indonesian workers could not afford to see the doctor so the aspirin pills are like their ‘cure for all’ medicine. This explained why Wiwy took the pills continuously. This situation was made worse by her panicking and her empty stomach as she did not take any food for hours before my mother’s demise.

God has been kind. Timing’s been perfect.

I must comment that I was extremely lucky that the timing was perfect. It was as though a guardian angel was watching over me. Imagine if Wiwy had collapsed without calling me and I had returned on Monday morning to find two dead bodies in the house. Or if she had died in the hospital?! The thoughts of what ifs made me appreciate my blessings.

3.30 p.m.- There was nothing we could for Wiwy except to wait for the psychiatric evaluation. So we bid our farewells and went to clean up the house in Mentakab.

4.30 p.m. – We returned to KL with my “mother’s soul” in the umbrella.