The Elderly Elevator Couple

HKL, October 12th 2016, Wednesday.

As the elevator descends from the 6th floor towards the 1st floor, it stops by the 4th floor. The doors open to reveal three hospital visitors: an Indian lady in her early 50's, and an elderly Malay couple -- perhaps in their mid-70's.

The Malay couple (who are very smartly dressed, the nenek in a pair of baju kurung and tudung bawal, and the atuk in a dress shirt and slacks) wobbles into the elevator, smiling at me and at the Indian lady. We smile back.

"It's very cold, isn't it?" the atuk says in immaculate English, and the Indian lady agrees.

"Yes! The clinic is so cold!" she says. Apparently they'd all been at the same clinic on the 4th floor just moments before.

The atuk and nenek smile at each other, then the atuk says playfully to the nenek, "It doesn't help that I'm very hungry as well!"

The nenek and the Indian lady laugh. I was already smiling at their antics before -- my face now splits into a grin. My thoughts are something along the lines of, "Alahai, so cute!"

Then the elevator stops again on the 3rd floor, admitting several more people, including a young boy around 12 years old who is pushing an elderly man in a wheelchair. A relative of his, no doubt -- perhaps his grandfather. Clad in a hospital gown and kain pelikat, the patient seems tired and somewhat forlorn.

The child then politely asks, "Boleh tekan tingkat 2 tak?" and being the closest to the panel of buttons, I press the '2' button.

As we reach the 2nd floor, everyone makes way for the child so he can push the wheelchair out of the elevator. And again, in such a polite manner, he says, "Terima kasih ya," to the people in the elevator before wheeling his grandfather away.

The metallic door closes.

The elevator descends.

We reach the first floor.

I let everyone exit first as I hold down the 'open' button. Some impatient hospital visitors are already pushing in -- but I am momentarily distracted by the elderly atuk and nenek from the 4th floor:

The atuk smiles at me and says, "Terima kasih..."

I smile back at them before following them out.

Just before we part ways, I catch a glimpse of something else that makes my smile widen:

The atuk and nenek are holding hands.

~*~

First posted on Facebook, October 12th, 2016.