s u n n y s i d e u p.

This is a true story about a neighbour of mine. He is in the early or mid 70s.
He is staying with his wife and I imagined their children must have settled down on their own.

From my window , I used to see them coming back from the market in their little Proton Tiara. They would collect all their provision from the boot of the car and the husband would packed everything in their basket. The wife would always 'boss' him around.

She would tell him to do a few other chores like picking up things, carry the stuff and so on. You can tell that she was the authority in their relationship. Sometimes after walking a few paces from the car, the wife would stopped and asked him to go back to the car to check if the doors were locked. And , with both hands carrying the marketing baskets, he would trudge back to the car to obey the wife, and walked back to the wife.

Without fail this would continue everytime they come back from an outing.

Whenever he is cleaning or dusting his Tiara, his wife would be there with him. But whenever they were leaving the car , the husband would be told to second-check that the doors are locked....and he would walk back and forth following the instruction of his wife.

I told myself--what a patient man !

Then one day I heard a new 'choot-choot' sound of the central locking system of a car. .I didn't pay much notice. After a few seconds, a single 'choot' sounded. A few seconds later , a double 'choot-choot' sound. This went on a few more times.

I had to see who that idiot was playing with the central-locking alarm.

Yes , it was him. HE HAD FINALLY FITTED THE CENTRAL-LOCKING SYSTEM TO HIS CAR. That would save him a lot of walking for him.

Good for him ! ( you might say )--- BUT HELL FOR ME !. Have you tried listening to that 'choot' - 'choot-choot' a million times everytime they came back from an outing.  I was on the verge of pulling my hair with both hands !aarrgghh!!!! And 3 out 10 times , he would set off the alarm by mistake. " eeeyaw - eeeyaw - eeyaw................etc" OHHHH my poor ears.

Then one day, everything stopped. No 'choot' or 'choot-choot' or ' eeyow-eeyow-eeyow-...' I didn't even see the couple any more.

The wife had passed away. I didn't know what to say.

Later, I started seeing the man again--coming back from an outing -- alone.
He just 'choot' once to lock the car and never had to come back or check the alarm again.

Now --the real part. It was only recently that I found out from the residents that for the last two years or so, he has been going to his wife's grave with a bottle of water EVERY MORNING EVERYDAY , sometimes with flowers to recite the surah Yasin .

Everyday--he has been doing this , unless it rained heavily, then he would go in the afternoon with an umbrella to shelter from the sun.

How about that --for love and devotion !!!!