How could this have happened? Thrown out by his own son

KANGAR - Abdul Rahman Talib, 57, felt like his heart was bleeding as he stepped out of his son’s car. Suddenly, he was there by the roadside – alone.

Minutes earlier, his son had asked him to get out of the house.

Stranded by the roadside and with no particular place to go, the former fisherman spent the night in the shelter of a bus stop.

Just a few days back, he was fighting for his life in a hospital bed after a heart attack.

This is not another heart-wrenching scene from a TV production. The real life drama happened here less than a week ago.

Left with just a bundle of clothes

Relating his woeful story to Malay tabloid Harian Metro on Tuesday, Abdul Rahman said it happened on Jan 7, after he returned from a heart operation at the Penang Hospital.

"I was shocked when, minutes after stepping into the house, my son – instigated by his wife – told me to go away.

"He took me in his car to the bus stop and left me there with just a bundle of clothing," he told the paper.

“I was in tears as I stepped out of the car. Never had I expected to be treated like this by my own son...after all the years of caring and loving that I had given him," sobbed Abdul Rahman, who used to be a fisherman in Kampung Belah Batu, Kuala Perlis.

With nowhere to go that evening, Abdul Rahman wandered aimlessly for a while and then returned to the bus stop to sleep through his sorrow.

The next day, he said, his hope of returning home was raised when his son came back to the bus stop, located in front of the SK Datuk Wan Ahmad here.

Abdul Rahman, however, was stunned again when the son only came to deliver an old bicycle for the father to "easily move about."

In need, a friend indeed

While wandering about on his second day in the streets, Abdul Rahman bumped into an old friend, who later invited him to his (the friend's) home for food and shelter. He stayed there three days.

Abdul Rahman, who is divorced, said he used to get welfare aid of RM300 a month from the Social Welfare Department. But this stopped when he moved in to live with his son in Kangar more than a month ago.

He said after giving up his fishing trade, he worked for five years as a helper at a restaurant in Langkawi. He has a married daughter who also lives on the island.

Abdul Rahman, who had stayed on his own, said his son persuaded him to follow him back here to help him at his (the son’s) food stall.

"I was working at a restaurant in Pokok Asam, Langkawi. But my son had insisted that I moved here and work with him.

"Moreover, the house here was bought with my money. I had a house previously at my fishing village.

“But when the government decided to build a railway line to pass through the village, I was given some compensation. It was with this money that I bought the house here,” he said.

A cold response

However, he claimed, after moving into the house he began to notice the cold response given to him by both his son and daughter-in-law.

He said when he collapsed at a bus stop because of a heart problem; he had to force himself to go alone to the Penang Hospital for a surgery.

"During the four days that I was at the hospital fighting for my life, neither my son nor his wife came to see me.

"I thought that they were, perhaps, too busy at their food stall.”

After his discharge from the hospital, he travelled back to Kangar.

“I was truly shocked when, on returning home, my son told me to get out of the house," he sobbed. -Malaysian Mirror