23rd July didn’t hold any significant meaning to me. I do have a record of the birth date of most family members, but I didn’t know that this cousin’s birthday actually falls on 24th July.
I received a mail from my aunt (cousin’s mother) a day before 23rd. The mail was sent to us, nieces and nephews, asking us a favor to individually sent him a greeting.

He celebrated his 24th birthday. This cousin of mine is born in UK and raised there. The total number of time I have met him?? Less than 10 times in my entire life. That was when he comes back with his mum, the last time must have been 7 or 8 years ago and we DON’T talk, probably just a casual “HI”, “BYE”, “HOW ARE YOU?” . It’s the gap, age and culture I suppose. When we talked over this matter on MSN, my brother was even sarcastically saying “even if I sent him a birthday greeting, I doubt he knows who I am”

The fact is my aunt is a single mother, she loves her son very much. She has been trying to give her son the best, best education , best of everything. I didn’t know what has actually gone wrong, but I know their relationship has been tensed over the years especially when cousin started Uni. Perhaps the father has been brainwashing him with craps over the weekend. The sad thing when I received the mail from aunt is that she mentioned that “she has not seen nor spoke to her son for a very long time….. I want him to know wherever he is that we all think of him….”

I can truly understand her anguish and agony. She has given her life and hope on her only son, and turn out that the son betrayed her love. I do not know how can one child be so senseless, hard headed and blind to not see the mother’s love for him. Aunt must be very lonely alone in UK when she and the son is not in talking term and the family is so far away. She does come back more frequent over the years now, visiting my grandma and when my uncle was very sick. I know , she long for her child to be back to her side. I know it’s hard for her to come back, looking at her sibling’s children so close to their parents.

I hope it won’t take long for the son to realize his mother’s loves for him.