{"id":6591,"date":"2010-06-09T23:48:54","date_gmt":"2010-06-09T15:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/?p=6591"},"modified":"2010-06-09T23:48:54","modified_gmt":"2010-06-09T15:48:54","slug":"if-they-can-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/borninmalaysia\/2010\/06\/09\/if-they-can-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"If they can do it…"},"content":{"rendered":"

These people<\/a><\/strong> are definitely role models for us to emulate.<\/p>\n

\n

V. RAJESHWARY, 45, has no arms but she has been doing a great job raising her three children.<\/p>\n

Her husband A. Selvamani, 49, said his wife was a good mother despite her handicap.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife was only four when she lost both her arms in an incident in 1969. She is so strong willed that I do not see any handicap in her,\u201d said Selvamani, who works as an assistant at a scrap-metal dealership in Batu Caves.<\/p>\n

Rajeshwary was among 15 special mothers who were feted during a Mother\u2019s Day celebration held at the Seremban Municipal Council hall in Seremban recently.<\/p>\n

Selvamani said he was introduced to his wife by a friend in 1997.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially we only spoke over the phone. I never knew she had no arms till she told me during one of our conversations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When they met, it was love at first sight. They married a year later.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n
Glad to meet you: Zainab giving Rajeshwary a hug as Selvamani (back row, right) and their son look on. With them is Malaysian Public Service Society president Andrew Raju.<\/div>\n

Rajeshwary, who does the house chores with her feet, said she felt honoured to be invited to the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one has organised a Mother\u2019s Day do for me before. Today is truly special and I didn\u2019t mind coming all the way here from Batu Caves to be here with the others,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ruslinda Mat Derus 29, who is paralysed from the waist down, had good words to say for the organisers.<\/p>\n

The mother of an eight-year-old daughter said she has never heard or read stories about special mums like her being celebrated on the auspicious day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really feel appreciated today. It brings tears to my eyes,\u201d said Ruslinda who earns a living making envelopes at Bengkel Seri Sembilan near Seremban.<\/p>\n

She became paralysed following a high fever after delivering her only child.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doctor told me there was some problem with my nerves and that I would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of my life,\u201d she said, adding that she and her husband went separate ways three years later.<\/p>\n

Ruslinda then moved from her husband\u2019s house in Gombak in Kuala Lumpur to her parents\u2019 place in Gemas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was devastated at first but I then read about Ras Adiba Radzi\u2019s plight. That gave me the will to carry on,\u201d she said, adding that she also plans to pursue a diploma in computer studies once she has saved enough money.<\/p>\n

Another special mum Ong Sek Ting, 41, was also glad she turned up for the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially I was afraid to come as I am not very good at interacting with people. I am so glad that I came,\u201d said Ong who attended the event with her husband Dee Beng Poh, 47, and two children aged 10 and seven.<\/p>\n

Ong, who was born in Kluang, Johor, and who now lives with her shop assistant husband in Lukut, was afflicted with polio when she was young.<\/p>\n

Due to this, she has a much shorter and deformed left leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stay home and make simple decorations for Malay weddings to supplement our income,\u201d she said, adding that despite her handicap, she also looks after her 88-year-old mother-in-law.<\/p>\n

Event organiser, Andrew Raju who heads the Malaysian Public Society said the objective of the event was to remind special mums that they were not second to normal mothers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to hold the event as many a time the sacrifices of special mothers are forgotten. We tend to forget that these mothers have to put in a lot extra to raise their kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

State women, family and community development committee chairman Datuk Zainab Nasir commended the organisers for holding the event to honour special mothers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis matters a lot to mothers, including myself. I lost my mum when I was in my second year at a teacher\u2019s training college. Being a student, there was nothing I could do for her then,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She later personally met the 15 mothers and gave out ang pows and hampers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These people are definitely role models for us to emulate. V. RAJESHWARY, 45, has no arms but she has been doing a great job raising her three children. Her husband A. Selvamani, 49, said his wife was a good mother despite her handicap. \u201cMy wife was only four when she lost both her arms in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-6591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-borninmalaysia","tag-role-model"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}