PETALING JAYA: “I have to be strong for my mother.”
Those are the words Siti Shakira is holding on to after losing her father and two younger sisters in a fatal collision involving an Immigration Department truck along Jalan Sultan Ismail in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, just a day before her birthday.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, the eldest daughter of Shaik Mohd Firdaus Shaikh Yahya, 53, and sister to Siti Nor Sazlin, 25, and Siti Darwisyah Auni, 12, said she was still struggling to come to terms with their deaths.
Shakira, 28, said her family of five is now left with only her and her mother.
“This is such a huge test for me. Just one day before my birthday, I was suddenly tested with the loss of my father and both my younger sisters.
“Until today, I still cannot believe that it was really them,” she said.
“I do not know how I can face all of this, but I have to be strong for my mother.”
Shakira said she had spent much of her life with her father and siblings, accompanying them wherever they went.
She also recalled the simple things her father and sisters used to say, which were still ringing in her head.
It was instances when her father asked her to go for a meal, or when her sister asked her to go to the night market, and when her youngest sister asked her to buy her something.
“My father never left me, even though he knew I was already married. This is such a heavy test for me,” she said.
She also said she was worried about her mother, Nor Hayati Rozali, 55, who is injured.
“I do not want her to lose hope. I want her to recover,” she said, adding that she was trying to stay strong and accept what had happened.
Despite her grief, she said she was grateful for the many messages of love and prayers shared about her family.
“I am grateful that everything I have read about them has been good. I never realised they were such good people and that they were loved by so many,” she said.
On Thursday, the Immigration Department lorry driver, Mohd Akbar Zainol, 43, pleaded not guilty to five charges, including dangerous driving, following the crash.
