DIYANA

She is our eldest and our 'diamond umbrella' (direct translation from Bahasa Intan Payong). From small she always is our darling daughter bringing joy and pride to the family.

Noorul Diyana is her name...the light of religion is its meaning...

Still remember how she smiled at us when she was barely three weeks old. She was on her mother's lap at the time.

Befiting her 'sulung' status she was really an independent child from the very early age.

She ironed her own clothes when she was in Tadika.

She braved it out in our Volvo 244 with me when her brother was hospitalized in HKL for leukemia...still remember the two of us having dinner at 1.00 am in a stall near HKL...

She was also a great survivor, organizer and a leader...

There was this episode that I would never forget...I was in great dilemma, whether to attend a meeting in Sabah or not...my wife was showing signs of asthma...being a new state director, I was too scared to miss the meeting and chose to attend it with the hope that she would be ok...

Reluctantly I got on board the plane to Kota Kinabalu....on reaching KK airport I saw a note telling that my wife was in CCU and I was requested to return to Melaka a.s.a.p. So I took the next plane to KL

I was frantic, to say the least, when I saw many cars parked in front of my house in Melaka...My mother and father together with my in-laws were there in my house...I was later told that it was Diyana who contacted all to come and help her for ahe was all alone in the house....she was only 9 then...

A second incident occurred when we were in Kuantan...she was 12 then...she was in a music camp in Serdang...after the camp the car from Jabatan Belia never came to fetch her...she quietly organized flight home together with her friends...I only knew about it when she called me telling me to fetch her at Kuantan Airports!

In US she made us proud by being the best all-arounder student...she scored straight A's, even in American History! It was a proud moment when she was up the stage receiving the scroll that was signed by Bill Clinton himself..

She has just completed her third year LLB in IIUM and hopes to join Petronas when she graduated in April next year...actually she has been booked bu PETRONAS...she impressed the national oil and gas company during her internship there when she was in the second year...

We hope and pray that she will be an excellent Legal Adviser to PETRONAS and continue be a good daughter....