A Tribute to the Late Mr Ratino

On Saturday night, I went to one of the bloggers' wedding at Kuching Park hotel. I was seated together with Cyril and he threw me a question on why I blog. I told him that I blog because I want to keep memories of my family members online so that if I passed away unexpectedly, my family would be able to read all the good things that I had written about them. I continued the conversation by telling him that we can never know when God will take our lives away from this world. Little that I know that, a friend who is so dear to me, Mr Ratino Sukarno ,was critically sicked and he passed away the next day (Sunday, 1 August 2010) at 3.45 pm.

I received an SMS from a friend today telling me that he was in a critical condition at Serian hospital. And at 4.00 pm, I received a phone call from another friend informing me that he had passed away. Upon hearing the news, I did not wait long. I took my car keys and drove over to his house. My jaw dropped, my eyes became teary and I was totally speechless when I saw a cold and lifeless body of him lying on the floor. I could not stop my tears from rolling down to my cheeks. I just could not believe that I had just lost a good friend.

(Rusmah and Ratino in 2008)

Ratino and Rusmah became my colleagues in 2005 at PPKS as lecturers. If I'm not mistaken, they got married to each other in 2006. Ratino was a very humble person and he was a man of integrity. That was why, I really enjoyed his company. In just three years with PPKS, his hard work paid off and he was promoted to a managerial post in PPKS.

Ratino took his job seriously. He started the oil palm plantation course in PPKS and he brought many students into PPKS. However, even though he contributed a lot to PPKS positive growth, he was never an arrogant man.

He valued his colleagues and always participated in PPKS social activities. He was always keen to help his friends when they needed help. I think that was why many of his colleagues were with him when he was dying in the hospital.

I still remembered Rusmah, his wife, showed their wedding photos to me from the office PC before I left PPKS. Her face was glowing when she shared her happy moments with me. But today, I can feel that Rusmah's heart and dreams are shattered because Rusmah and Ratino enjoyed their marriage life for only 4-5 years and their eldest child is only 2 years old. The youngest is still in Rusmah's womb.

I just could not sleep tonight thinking about them. So I decided to write this as a tribute to Mr Ratino. May his soul rest in peace.

Mr Ratino will be buried at Kpg Jawa Menaul, Serian on 2nd August 2010.