happy father’s day, atta

one islamic year ago today, atta - that’s dad in turkish - lost his wife and my sister and i lost our mother, my two nephews lost their grandmother and countless people lost their sister, cousin and friend.

so we had prayers for mummy today. and atta spent the entire weekend going to the market, buying the best rice, chicken, vegetables, spices, ghee, condensed milk and whatever else for a feast meant for the poor and the few from the mosque who came to pray for mummy.

but it was father’s day today. for atta, it was mummy’s day. 

atta had planned this day for a while, saying he wanted to mark mummy’s death on the islamic calendar, which is 11 days shorter than the gregorian calendar. 

we shall mark it, of course, on june 27 when mummy passed away suddenly despite slow recovery in her month-long stay in hospital.

yet, today was what atta wanted to mark and he wanted to cook a simple dish of ghee rice, chicken curry, fried chicken and raita for good friends and those who would enjoy the meal.

because mummy and atta liked to do this, share whatever they had with anyone who would enjoy it. especially friends and those who would not get such a meal anywhere else. a meal made with love.

so that was atta’s father’s day today. he cooked, for mummy and for the world. he has always done this way back when we were a young family.

mummy would smile, she might grumble that he won’t clean but she would join him to cook up a storm. 

today, six feet of earth might separate mummy from us but she’s alive and in our lives in everything we do. especially for atta.

i wished him happy father’s day just now and thanked him for everything. he smiled and then pulled the tab of a can and had a drink.

guess it was a good sunday night for that. and he deserved it and more.

happy fathers’ day, atta, today and every day.