Returning mother’s sacrifice with labour of love

PETALING JAYA: Watching his mother struggle to cook nasi lemak and kuih before dawn each day prompted 16-year-old Muhammad Ilham Mohd Fadzil to help sell her fare.

The Form Four student said he could not bear the sight of seeing his mother working alone and offered to help her sell at the Setiawangsa Light Rail Transit station every day after school.

“I wish I could do more, but I must focus on my school work too,” he said, adding that he joined his mother to sell nasi lemak and kuih at the station since he was six years old before selling it on his own.

The youngest of four siblings, Muhammad Ilham gets mostly A’s in school and aspires to work with Petronas in its communications department.

“Many of my customers work in Petronas and every time they stop by I will be awestruck seeing them in their uniforms, or wearing their office wear, and the Petronas nametag. I want to be one of them someday,” he told theSun.

Muhammad Ilham said he is interested in studying communications and hopes to attend university near his home so that he can continue to help his mother, Rita Amri Mandai, 42, who is a Minang, an ethnic group native to the Minangkabau Highlands of West Sumatra in Indonesia.

She prepares her nasi lemak, curry puffs and their best seller pulut pangang (grilled glutinous rice stuffed with coconut and dried shrimp sambal) as early as 5am every day.

“My eldest son, Mohammad Firdaus, 20, helps me prepare the food. It takes us all day and by the time Muhammad Ilham is home from school, they are ready to be sold,” she said.

Rita described Muhammad Ilham as a very quiet boy who seldom goes out with friends.

“He is a good son and goes out maybe once a month. Even then, he is back within a couple of hours. He has never stayed out for too long or been up to mischief,” she said.

Rita is a single mother and has been divorced for many years. She has not heard from her ex-husband for the past nine years.

“I know he is in Kedah with our second child Bukhairi, who is 18 years old this year. But other than that, I don’t know much of what is happening in his life,” she said.

Her third son, Muhammad Imanshah, 17, works at a cafe near the Defence Ministry.

Muhammad Ilham plans to save up enough money to open a family stall one day.

“Even if I have a job in Petronas someday, I still want to open the stall for my brother to continue our small business,” he said.

He added that he prefers to be alone in school because he does not have much time to socialise.

“I am always busy with either school work or helping my mother, so I don’t have many friends in school, just one or two.”

Other than his studies and selling nasi lemak, Ilham said he enjoys playing football at night because it is too hot during the day.

“I usually stay out for an hour or two at the most. I don’t have money to spend if I go out, so I stay home most of the time.”

Despite the family’s hardship, Muhammad Ilham said he was not asking people to donate money or sympathise with him.

“Please just support my small business. That is the best anyone can do for us,” he said.

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