R.I.P. Yasmin Ahmad

I must admit that I do not know much about this remarkable woman. What I do know is how her work touched me and how it never failed to bring tears to my eyes. Films and advertisements directed by her were filled with so much honesty and depicted much of our Malaysian life and culture. She was honest about both the good and the bad and many of us found a part of ourselves in these.

July 25th, 2009 was a sad day. Yasmin was pronounced dead after she suffered an earlier stroke and collapsed during a meeting at Sri Pentas. Our local news station aired a special on her life and achievements on 1 August at 9.00pm. For one hour, I sat glued to the TV with a box of Kleenex by my side. I cried as I watched the interview with her parents and how they described her as being "one in a million". It saddened me to watch her mum clinging to her grave while her dad tried to console her through the mist of his own grief. In that interview, Yasmin's dad described her as a soft spoken child who never once raised her voice at either parent. Whenever her voice went up an octave, she would immediate rest her head on the mum's lap and ask for forgiveness. According to her mum, she always reprimanded her siblings and told them "I spent my life making mum happy and I don't want you to make her cry". Her mum recalled that Yasmin had hoped that her mum would die before her so that she could ensure that she could pray for the repose of her mum's soul while in another instance, she wanted them to die together and be buried side by side. This is the relationship she shared with her family. The kind of relationship that even Danielle Steel would find hard to write about.

May you rest in eternal peace Yasmin. Malaysia misses you.

Yasmin, you have done us proud and you make me proud to be a Malaysian.