(1258) His mysterious way

The first stint of my stay in Sabah lasted two and a half years. When landlord no 1 wanted to increase rental from $550 to $700, I gave notice.

One of my son's student's parents offered him a suite of two connected rooms on top of their restaurant. It took me a week to shrink from a double storey three room three baths to two small rooms.

My neighbour's maid agreed to take anything I decided could not fit into the said two rooms. Every morning for that week I waited to see my neighbours (a couple with grown children away) left for work before moving things to the maid. When she could, she came over to make multiple trips of moving small items in baskets and boxes.

Much later she told me her mistress had had no idea I gave her loads of things. I was very surprised! I know the master would not mind . But to maintain the peace of this neighbour's household I was discreet. There were shelves in the maid's room. She cleverly covered them with old discarded sheets fixed with clothes clips. When her mistress pointed to the sheets, the maid explained that climbing up chairs to wipe the shelves daily caused knee pain. After all, she was sixty two years old although she was fit and spry.

During that week, three times friends and relatives came in vehicles to move things to her son's house in the plantation. The plantation house is rather big with many rooms. When the son borrowed his father-in-law's double cab truck to transport things to the mother's house, they timed the arrival to after dark. The son would back the truck close to the main door of the wooden house before unloading. None of her neighbours even saw what she had acquired. Through the years, another son's father-in-law built recycled cupboards for her. Of course she paid him whatever she could afford out of her meagre pay. When she first started to work for the present couple twenty three years ago, her monthly pay was $230. At the time I was living next to her master she was earning $600. On such low pay she could not have savings. But she remembered how her master and mistress allowed her three boys to spend their holidays in their house. They also undertook to pay for the boys' education, the first boy actually completed his pre-university. As foreigners, education is not free. She was mindful of kind deeds and was not calculating about pay.

As far as she was concerned, it was God who ordained me staying a few doors away. In her wildest dream she never imagine she would be given such a range of household items. Most of them I have freighted them over in boxes paying Air Asia $20 for 25 kilograms. During the many trips, each member of my family would bring them as luggage. I am also touched that she cried with joy. My loss of a low price rental house resulted in a great blessing in her old age. We parted with a tight hug, knowing that nothing happened by chance. It is the mysterious hand of God.