DATUK Paduka Tunku Khadijah Tunku Abdul Rahman, the eldest daughter of the nation’s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, will be remembered by her eldest daughter Sharifah Intan Syed Hussein as an avid driver despite her advanced age.
“Her driving is legendary and ‘notorious’ where she used to get a lot of tickets for traffic offences,” the former deputy executive editor of The Star told FocusM when reminisced about her late mother.
“She got caught by the police for driving on the shoulder lane during a traffic jam on the highway to Penang. Her reason? “Everyone’s so slow…’’
Tunku Khadijah, 89, breathed her last on Monday (Aug 15) at 6.50pm from lung cancer. She was laid to rest at the Bukit Kiara Muslim Cemetery at 3pm yesterday (Aug 16). She leaves behind three daughters, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
When they were living in London, Sharifah Intan recalled one time when her mother had parked her car by the roadside during heavy fog. When the fog lifted, she had discovered her car was blocking the entrance to the police station!
“Another time, she had a police car trail her right into our driveway because she had run a red light!” quipped the daughter. “But she had gradually slowed down her driving although she still walked fast despite having arthritis.”
Born on Oct 8, 1932, Tunku Khadijah was Tunku Abdul Rahman’s first-born with his Chinese wife, Cik Meriam Chong Abdullah.
In a speech to celebrate her mother’s 87th birthday, Sharifah Intan further shared how Tunku Khadijah was generous with animals.
“She’s known as the carrot lady at the stables because she brings the horses carrots,” noted Sharifah Intan. “The horses can hear her car engine and get excited when she arrives. They snort and paw the ground with their hooves as they recognise her!”
After losing a very dear friend, Sharifah Intan recalled how her mother was at the cemetery three times a week: “She made it a point to visit her friend’s grave, put flowers and paid for the caretaker to clean the area.”
Family was indeed everything to this matriarch who made it a point to remain a present fixture in her children’s – and grandchildren’s – lives.
“She’s like a second mother to my girls. She would help me when they were small, send them to boarding school and went to all their graduations. All the graduation pictures, she’s there!” reminisced another daughter Datin Seri Sharifah Menyalara (Lara) Hussein in a recent interview with Tatler Malaysia.
The doting grandmother even took them everywhere when they were little – from ice-skating at Mines Wonderland and boating sessions at the lake to sending them for singing and piano lessons. – Aug 17, 2022
