Wak Lah's Dream

A few weeks ago, my uncle Abdullah, fondly known as Wak Lah, called me. He said that he had this dream about Haji Yusoff, his grandfather and my great-grandfather. Wak Lah said that he never dreamt about Haji Yusoff. I was curious and asked him to tell me about his dream.

Wak Lah said that Haji Yusoff came to the room and said in Malay, "Lah, baju datuk kotor. Tolong bersihkan." (Lah, my shirt is dirty. Please clean it.).

Wak Lah then said that there was this small child (he thought that it could be me) in the same room. The child brought a stool for Haji Yusoff to sit on. Then Wak Lah took a pail of water and cloth and cleaned Haji Yusoff's shirt. 

"Sudah bersih!" (It's clean). Haji Yusoff smiled and walked away happily.

Wak Lah interpreted the dream to be:

Haji Yusoff's reputation was plagued with accusations of black magic, and how he became one of Singapore's pioneer millionaires because he made a pact with the Devil to give him wealth in exchange for his son's life -- you may read more in this post. His first wife's grandchildren's shenanigans also caused the family much headache. It was Wak Lah and myself who helped sort out the mess with regard to the shophouse at 717 North Bridge Road. Wak Lah said, that the child in the dream was me who wrote my book 'Gedung Kuning: Memories of a Malay Childhood' to debunk all the malicious gossips regarding Haji Yusoff and the family. The revised edition of Gedung Kuning book which was published last month (before the dream) was to also clear the family's name and reputation against libellous allegations made in a publication by a well-known scholar early this year.

I felt sad and happy to hear Wak Lah's dream. Sad at what Haji Yusoff went through but happy that we have done something to clear his reputation even 70 years after his demise. I love my family dearly. Writing about the family is the least that I could do.

I pray that I will get to meet Haji Yusoff in the hereafter. I will hug him and kiss his hands out of respect to one of the finest Malay sons in Singapore. I hope that I will get the chance to tell him how proud I am to call him my great-grandfather.