2007 04: Joy, disbelief as daughter returns after two years

NST online. Local News. 15/04/07

TENGKU PUTERI NUR AQILAH & TENGKU KAMARUDIN:Runaways or forcibly taken away, it makes no difference to parents. The fear of not knowing what has happened to their children is a fate that no parent should undergo.

V. SHUMAN and FADHAL ILAHI ABD GHANI spoke to two families who experienced contrasting fortunes recently.

TIME stood still for Maria Wati Abdul Wahab on Thursday evening.

The daughter she had never given up hope on, was standing in front of their home in Kuala Lumpur.

They stared at each other for a moment before breaking down and collapsing into each other’s arms. The prodigal daughter, Tengku Puteri Nur Aqilah Tengku Kamarudin, had returned after two years.

There was no hesitancy on Maria’s part. Her daughter was back and that was all that mattered.

They were still crying and holding onto each other when the New Sunday Times visited them the next day.

Tengku Puteri, 16, did not want to say much. Her mother did most of the talking.

Her mother had waited outside her school in Jalan Peel in April, 2005, but Tengku Puteri did not show up. "My life was never the same again," Maria, 39, said.

Maria and her husband, Mohd Alyvvn Lim, spent more than RM50,000 on travel, telephone calls and other expenditure in their search of their only child.

Maria spoke of how afraid she would be whenever she watched the news or read about the body of an unidentified girl being found.

"I would pray it wasn’t my daughter." On many occasions, the couple were sent on a wild goose chase all over the country.

"We went through hell, our marriage suffered but I am so happy now. I am not going to lose her again.

"It is believed that the girl stayed with her friend’s family for the past two years. She did not contact her family but "came to her senses" on Thursday morning.

She was crying throughout the interview. Her mother held her and kept assuring her that everything would be all right.

Maria is not going to force Tengku Puteri to get back to her studies.

"I will allow her to decide. "I will not impose my will on her. I don’t want to lose her."

She recounted the moment when she set eyes on her daughter after two years on Thursday evening.

She and her husband, who operate a food stall near their apartment at the Dahlia Court in Pandan Indah, were starting business for the day when the guard told them that their daughter had just gone to their unit.

"I was afraid of being disappointed again. "There were many times when the information we got about her turned out to be false," Maria said.

"I had to pinch myself to make sure I was not dreaming when I saw my daughter standing outside our unit."