An old lady..with her tempe...

Yesterday, on my way to KLIA to send my sister (went to Australia to pursue her Master), we stopped by at one mosque in remote area to pray.(My dad purposely chose to use ‘kampung’ roads to avoid Tol). When I entered the toilet, I was greeted by an old lady. She was small and looked fragile. She was holding a big plastic bag. With sign of politeness never shaded from her face, she extended her hands to salam with me. I then met her again inside the mosque after the pray. Slowly she walked towards us (me, my sisters and moi mama) and sat besides us. Once again, she extended her hands to salam and once again I felt happy to accept it. She took out something from the big plastic bag. It was ‘tempe’ (famous dishes among the Johoreans) and asked whether we want to buy it. We didn’t know what to respond at first as we’re heading to KL and of course we didn’t want it. Politely my mom declined. Surprisingly, I saw no sign of disappointment on her face, she still smiling. Suddenly I felt pity for this lady. I urged my mom to buy it although we didn’t want it. When we said we wanted to buy the ‘tempe’, you could see the glow on her face! By looking at her, I couldn’t help but to think about her family. Does she have one? And why, at her age, she has to walk around and sell ‘tempe’? What did the government has done to help her—or other people like her- Until now I’m still thinking about that lady, or ‘nenek’ should I call. And the meeting makes me missing my late grannies….. mucho….