Tissue Paper

Before 10 this morning, a pack of tissue paper means nothing much to me - it was just another normal tissue paper for hygienic purpose.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

I've been away from home for a few years, at first it was for my degree, now I left my home to work for a living.

It was just like all those other days, where I went back home for a few days and on my last day at home, my mom would always wake up early in the morning, walking all around the kitchen preparing something for me to bring along with me on the journey down to KL. (She is always worry that I won't have proper meal alone.)

This morning was no different than the previous one - the smells of grilled chicken and meatloaf first invaded the kitchen, then the living room.

While I was in the shower, getting ready to head of to the bus station, my mom was busy packing the grilled chicken she made.

When she drop me off to the bus station, I took the breakfast she made for me as usual. But when I was on the bus, struggling to figure out where should I put my freshly grilled chicken, I noticed something in the paper bag she packed for me - sitting next to the grilled chicken and meatloaf was a pack of blue tissue paper, with two penguins on the cover.

At first, I couldn't stop grinning at it, thinking how adorable my mother was, that she remembers I don't always carry a pack of tissue paper with me, that  I might eat those delicious chicken in the bus and might not have a tissue paper to clean my hand after finishing my meal. I was so amazed how she could thought of it when I hadn't.

Then it caught me, that how attentive a mother always is to her daughter, that the unconditional love of a mother to her daughter, that there will always be someone who cares and loves me, and think about me all the time even though I'm 355km + a 13.5km bridge away from her.

From that moment,  that pack of tissue paper is not just any pack of tissue paper, but a pack of tissue paper filled with my mother's love and attentiveness to me, her daughter.

Mom, I love you, a lot. And the same to you too, Dad.