The Best Present ever

Remembering a present is always a fun thing to do, we all have our own memory on this, especially on our childhood days. Most of little girls love to get pretty things as a present, such as dolls, complete with the dress, the doll’s house and its little car… Or a pretty ceramic French dolls with pretty blonde hair and its pretty look alike princess’s dress. Or some other pretty things that almost all little girls love to have in their young age.

For me, I have a special memory on this present thing, I always remember this old typewriter that my father gave me when I was about eight years old. It was not my birthday or Christmas, and it was my dad’s old typewriter when he was finishing his Bachelor’s degree, and until this moment, I always consider that typewriter is The Best Present that I ever received in my entire life.

Actually, he didn’t give that typewriter as a present, in my teenage years, I knew that he decided to give me that typewriter for a very simple but funny reason. I was a pretty naughty little girl, a hyper-active one if I may say, I couldn’t stop running and playing around, always has something to do, something to search, something to broke, something this and something that, I was just simply never stop moving and sweating and gave this head ache to both of my parents for being such a naughty girl. But every time I saw that typewriter, I couldn’t help myself of sitting in front of it and pushing the buttons all the time. I guess, my dad caught the excitement and one day, when I got back from school, I found that typewriter on my desk, and I started to look around, and at the same time when I was having this amazing excitement inside, like riding a roller coaster, I had this question popped out in my head, “What on earth is this thing doing on my desk?” I remembered, after a moment of this indescribable joy, I realized that something is not right at the moment…, in a couple of minutes, I turned around and walked into the dining room. 

The dining room was empty, but I heard some laughing voice came from the Family room, I knew it was the voice of my mom’s and my little sister, I walked towards that room and opened the door, my mom looked at me and said, 

“ Hey… Mbak Icha, you’re home..!” and she continued to watch the TV while she was having my little sister in her arms,

“ Why you haven’t changed your uniform ? Get change fast, we’re having fried noodle for dinner,“ my mom said again, I was just standing there with all of this questions in my head on why, how, when and what was the reason of that typewriter’s existence on my desk ? But from the look of my mom’s face, I sensed that she has no recollection of this matter at all, I just turned around and ran to the bath room, took a bath and ran back to my room, in about 30 minutes I heard my mom’s voice calling for my name, I ran to the dining room and I found my mom and my little sister sat there, my dad was not around, and when I asked my mom, she just replied that he had went somewhere about an hour before I got home. 

After we had our dinner, I ran straight back to my room, sat on the front of my desk, and I was like having this strange silence, I just sat there, did nothing but looking at the typewriter. My dad never actually let my play with it, but why suddenly this thing is actually on my desk, I could remember this little voice was asking so many questions inside my head. It’s a quite torture when I actually having this amazing eager inside of me to push those buttons, but at the same time, I was quite scared of breaking one of the most important thing that belong to my dad. 

I grabbed my bag and pulled out some books, winked every 5 seconds to that typewriter, I was going to look at some of my books and put them back to the shelfs, I was saying to myself all the time that this is some kind of a mistake or the maid just misplaced that thing, but I couldn’t help myself! I stood there and looked at it! Suddenly I heard the door was opened and my dad went inside.

“ What are you been up to, little girl” he asked, I was quite surprised and simply couldn’t say anything at all, but then I saw this one of a kind smile upon my father’s face, 

“ You can use my typewriter now, just promise me that you’ll take good care of it, okay ? “ he said again, and I was like…, Oh my God…, no words to describe how I felt that time, for I was just stood there with my heart almost blown up, but I remembered that my dad came towards me, rubbed my head and walked away…

Since that night, I typed almost everything, that typewriter became the witness of every happiness and every single tear that I had until a certain stage of my life, it became the tutor when I studied and the companion of my journey on reaching my deepest thoughts. Who would ever imagined that a dead thing could effect so much to someone’s life? I remember it very clearly, I started to write all my thoughts and had it all typed with this typewriter, I got a new one when I was about 17 or so, not long after that my dad passed away, and in about 18 months, my mom joined him. I thought my life would end that time, but Thank God, my life turned out to be so amazing, it didn’t start as an easy journey, but somehow, along the way, I still could hear the voice of my old typewriter every time I wrote my notes, I still could feel the buttons whenever I type something on my PC’s keyboard.

It was an amazing moment when one night, in silence, I had this memory of my dad, he was typing something and I was sitting next to him, I believe it was the time when I was just a very little girl, but why did this memory suddenly appeared in my mind? Then I realized, all of these memories always comes to my heart’s doorstep with the harmony of that typewriter’s typing sound, I closed both of my eyes and suddenly I had this amazing journey back to the time when I could actually feel the love and the caress that both of my parents brought into my life, and then I knew…,this simple old typewriter turned out to be the pedestal of my parent’s remembrance inside of me for eternity. It was never easy to let go our loved ones, but sometimes we have to remember that somethings happen for it’s own reason, and things weren’t that bad as it looked if you see with your heart.

And for that, I will always cherish this old typewriter as The Best Present ever, for it gave me the ability to honor and love every simple things that had occurred in my entire life, this great gift had given me the courage to believe, that sometimes, the best way to find the best things in life is letting go, surrender and let God lead your way with the sensitivity to recognize the most simple beauty of life that you discover along the way.

I love you, papa,mama….

I wish God send this message of mine to both of you, 

that I always miss you both in every beat of my heart….

In memoriam :

Pangeran Adil Sitompul 

(passed away on October 20th 1994), and

Lucia Chandra Shintawati Sitompul 

(passed away on April 30th 1996, and she would be 52 on October 16th)

loving parents of Lisa Fransiska Sitompul