A Sad day (May she rest in Peace)

[Pufferfish1]

Family together at home in girl's last days

 

 

Mr Juraimy and Madam Raba'ah, holding the diary that their daughter Amy Nabel'la Juraimy, 13, kept. Stricken with bone cancer, Amy chose to go home and managed to spend quality time with her family in her last days. -- ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH TWO days into intensive care in National University Hospital, it was clear Amy Nabel'la Juraimy, 13, was not going to make it.

 

 

She was dying of bone cancer.

 

 

Her mother, Madam Raba'ah Abdul Ghani, 39, told her in tears that her doctors could not do anything more for her.

 

 

Amy, struggling to breathe, said to her mother: 'But you always asked me to fight.'

 

 

Her mother replied: 'Mummy will always fight with you.'

 

 

That was when Amy asked to go home. The choice, made last month, was the right one.

 

 

Her father Juraimy Difari, 39, said: 'Amy was very happy when she came home.'

 

 

In the last week of her life, Amy asked for - and got - her favourite foods and soft drinks, which the hospital would not have served.

 

 

More importantly, she spent quality time joking around and having meals with her parents and six siblings.

 

 

A nurse from HCA Hospice Care made daily visits.

 

 

Madam Raba'ah said: 'We wanted us all to be together, under one roof.'

 

 

She recalled how it pained her then to leave Amy in the hospital when the time came daily for her to go home to her other children.

 

 

'When I came back, I saw her struggling to breathe. It made me very regretful that I didn't stay with her,' she said.

 

 

Mr Juraimy said he had wanted to take his daughter home when she was diagnosed with end-stage bone cancer last July, 'but we didn't want Amy to think that we didn't love her'.

 

 

'We wanted to show her we were fighting with her.'

 

 

And fight, they did.

 

 

After the medical treatment failed, her parents spent money on health supplements and traditional remedies for a sliver of hope - not that there was much money to spare. Mr Juraimy, who earns about $850 a month as a cleaner, worked seven days a week, and rode a bicycle to save on bus fare.

 

 

Thankfully, Amy's medical bills have been covered by the Children's Cancer Foundation.

 

 

Amy had no illusions about her chances. Three days after she returned home, she called her parents to her side to give them each a traditional greeting in which one kisses the hand of an elder as a mark of respect.

 

 

Kiss me on the cheek, she asked of her mother. She then placed her father's hand over her mother's and said: 'Take care of Mummy.'

 

 

She made her family members promise they would not cry when the time came.

 

 

The next morning, she told her father that she had seen men in white coming to carry her away. Amy was lucid, free of tubes that would have tethered her to life-support machines, and free of sedation.

 

 

Her mother whispered: 'If you love me, go. Don't fight it.'

 

 

Holding her parents' hands, Amy took three slow breaths and then a final one at 4am on a morning in March.

 

 

Her family was quiet. No one sobbed. It was just the goodbye she had wanted.

 

 

POON CHIAN HUI

 

 

[Kurty]

it touches my heart, Condolences

[New_Atlantis]

Sometimes it's hardest to stop fighting and just let go...

 

Edited April 16, 2012 by New_Atlantis

[Vhtfhwlego]

sad....

 

such a young age....

 

someone said, it is very cruel to bring someone to the world if that you cannot provide the best in life to him/her.

although that family not well to do, they had bought the best in life to this little one by showing love, encouragement, courage.

[Mrmilktooth]

RIP...

[Jamstart]

Whenever I read about cancer patients, it really makes me sad. Amy, RIP.

[Anakin]

it's especially sad for parents to see their children go before them ... RIP.

[Jamstart]

Moral of the story is.... Love the one who is around you, never ignore them.

[Highmount]

I'm saddened to read this news. RIP Amy...

[Lurpsexx]

  On 4/16/2012 at 3:24 AM, Anakin said:

it's especially sad for parents to see their children go before them ... RIP.

 

Well, this episode drives home the pointless pursuit of all material things when love is all we need.

 

The parents were not well off, yet they lacked nothing and had all the love for their family.

 

The parents did not drive big cars nor lived in condos, they had almost nothing but they loved their children no less than anyone else.

 

Time for self-reflection.....

 

God bless this little girl and her family.... we are all human after all....