Captain, my Captain!

My son is now officially a Captain with Emirates Airlines so, as any father would be i am very proud of his achievement in his career and if do not mention this in my blog it would not do him justice. I am blessed with having a son who even though has been called the 'Mixed up kid" by his late grandma in Green Bay Wisconsin, has now grown into a full fledged man married to a lovely English lady and is living life in Dubai. He still gets bashed around as a Ice Hockey Goal Keeper and every now and then still throws wild parties for his friends, however he is now settling down to being a good husband and hopefully make me a grandpa. He calls me 'Dork' every now and then and I call him 'Peckerhead' in jest but we feel for each other like father and son even though he grew up missing me most of the time being raised by his mother in Germany after my divorce. Through it all he has grown up into a tough cookie, worthy of being called a captain and...I get to fly first class wherever i go on Emirates, being a father to Captain has its pprivileges.
My son was born in Malaysia at the Asunta Hospital in Petaling Jaya and I was in Penang when he was born and did not get to see him until I arrived from Penang at about ten in the night. One the morning he was born I was working at the office of Hagemeyer Trading Company in Geogetown, Penang while his mother pregnant with him was working in Shah Alam where she was a lecturer at MARA College teaching Business Administration. From the moment I received a phone call from I presume a nurse at the maternity ward informing me that i had a son, it took me the whole day into the night to find my way to the hospital in Petaling Jaya, this was in 1974. It ws the longest day of my life as i discovered that on the same day it was the Chinese Day of Feast for the Dead and all the public transportation were fully booked, not a plane seat or a bus, no train or taxis until I managed to get a taxi which took me half the way to the town of Ipoh in Perak.
I still remember standing by the roadside underneath the street lamp in the drizzling rain with warm tears flowing down my cheeks, beside me were two large suitcases full of baby stuff which my wife had gotten together for the event. As I stood there wondering what to do along came a car, i think it was a Datsun driven by an Indian who asked me where i was headed for and after telling him my plight he told me to hop in and ride with him as he was on the way to KL too. As i sat beside him and to my relief at this God sent angel of mercy, he told me of one stipulation hes has for and that was I had to listen to the cassette tape he plays while driving. It was a 'Puja' or prayer chant to Lord Ganesha, the Elephant headed Deity, saviour od the wayfarers and children, like saint Christopher. At that time i did not realize all these but was willing to listen to the Grateful Dead if i had to for that matter just sol long as i could get to see my wife and child; I was scared in all ways of what might have happened.
My wife was miling her sweetest smile when she saw me enter her room and tears poured freely from her as i hugged her but my son was in the nursery. Fortunately a sympathetic nurse came by and led me to the nursery where she allowed me to enter and hold my son for the first time; I felt the awesomeness of being a father. Four days later with the help of one of my former secondary school math teacher, Mr. Ong Them Loon, I flew the three of us flew back to Penang where we resided at my Auntie's house, the Auntie that had just passed away a couple of weeks ago which I attended in Rawang, Selangor. Four months later we were flying out of Malaysia to Green Bay, Wisconsin. My son was never short of love while he was a child as practically everyone adored him for his serene and quiet demeanour, rarely did he ever complain or raise a ruckus like children do. However even as a child I knew he had a mind of his own and was destined for greater things in life.
After our divorce my wife took my son with her to Germany where whe had a teaching job with the American Military base in Mannheim. I did not see my son for a few years except when his mother brought him back to visit Grandma and me. I made all effort ot meet him wherever I was whenever he was back in the States even when I was living in the Aleutian Ilse, Alaska and later in San Francisco, California. Each of these I made in the effort to see my son is a story in itself, as i had to fly on three flights to get ot Green Bay from Alaska and how I had to Hitch hiked form SF to Green Bay with 67 dollars in my pocket, it took me three days to get to his grandma's house in green Bay. But it was worth all the trials and tribulations I had face getting there and hes was more than surprised to see me as I am sure his mother must have told him to not have high hopes of me being there. Although enstranged, lving apart did not affect our close ties between father and son and thanks to my wife who made every effort to make sure we kept in touch throughout his life. Ironically it made fo a stronger bond between us as a family as my son was able to be and experience more than an average child would; he flew by himself to San francisco when he was 10 or eleven years of age and seemed cool about it when I picked him up at the airport in San Jose, Califonia. I remember him breaking away from the airline stewardess assigned to keep an eye on him and rushed up to me with the same excited look in his face whenever we met  and the Stewardess came up to me and said, "I guesse he is yours!". I jokingly looked over her shoulder and asked. "Is there anymore back there, I don't know about this one!" My son shouted, "Dad!"
It was one of the best visit I had with him. It was during this visit that he had his first helicopter flight over the Golden Gate Bridge where he sat by the pilot in the front seat. Upon his return he did a sketch of the whole Golden Gate and Marin Coastal area bird's eye view showing places like Green Gulch Farm in the distant Muir Beach area and Sausalito.
Later in his life my son did his college studies at the San Jose State University and was living some sixty miles from me in San Francisco and by then he had two more siblings from my late wife Nancy. He came to visit us every weekend and would lavish his younger brother and sister with all kinds of toys and lugged his younger brother all over san Francisco. I would attend his Ice Hockey games and at one time was treated to a San Jose Shark's game where I almost fell asleep and he lost his wallet. I was lving in Sendai Japan by then and had returned to pay him a visit and check out out his lving condition in college; he was living allot better than I was as far as comfort went, thanks to his mom. When he graduated from High School in Berlin Germany, i made a trip there to attend his graduation ceremony where among other things he was to relinquish his position as Battalion Commander for the ROTC or R.O.T.C. is the Reserve Officer Training Corps. Its an officer commisioning program for college students. I watched him as he handed the battalion flag to his successor with a father's pride. yes i told myself this 'Peckerhead' is destined to lead. I stayed with him for ten days while his mother left for Hawaii with her husband. I got a small piece of the Berlin Wall before it was torn down thanks to my son and his buddy for chipping the Wall under the cover of darkness! While I was visiting him he drove me to Lipzig in his mom's Mercedes and had me clinging to my seat on the German Autobahn at breakneck speed and there was a Bulldog slobbering all over the back seat as though it was a lazy Sunday afternoon drive to the Chuech while there I was hanging on to my dear life in the hands of a newly liscenced to drive kid driving his mom's mercedes on a German Autobahn!
I can keep reflecting all the episodes that had forged our relationship over the years and still my son has not ceased to amaze me in his out of the ordinary antics. I know he has a warm heart and most of his friends would testify to this and his one weakness, like his Dad is women! I hope that by being married now all that too is being put to and end and that he will further rise above the ordinary and make of himself someone worthy of being the Captain of the Soul, (Not 'Soul Plane' Captain!) In his hands will be the fate of hundreds of passengers and may God watch over every flight he makes that he takes off and return safely to the ground and that as i always reminded him never to forget the ground he walks on when his head is in the clouds! I love and am proud of of you Nazri Bahari.