KAMPAR: The two boys were crying incessantly; they wanted to follow their trailer lorry driver father on his delivery run to Melaka.
Eventually, their parents gave in, as they could not stand the sight of their sons weeping so.
It was to be a tragic decision.
Earlier today, the New Straits Times reported on an accident last night which killed three at KM10 Jalan Malim Nawar-Kota Baru.
Hafize Nizam Ali Supian, 30, and sons Muhammad Afeef Rafiqie, 9, and Arrian Nuh, 6, were all killed when the trailer lorry they were travelling in was believed to have gone out of control and crashed.
Hafize's mother-in-law Normah Khalid said her 31-year-old daughter, Shamsira Mohd Norizin, and the couple's three sons had earlier driven to a restaurant to have lunch with Hafize after he had picked up a consignment of cement at a factory in Gopeng.
She said Hafize was to have continued on his journey to Melaka to deliver the cement. At the restaurant, the two older boys began crying, insisting on following their father on his trip.
"My son-in-law had no intention of bringing their two sons with him to Melaka but they were both crying non-stop, prompting him to agree.
"My grandsons must have been so excited to travel in the trailer lorry since they had never followed their father before," she said when met at the Kampar Hospital's Forensic Unit today.
After Hafize and the boys left, Shamsira and youngest son, Adeeb Hud, 2, returned home.
At 10.30pm, the family got the call they will never forget for the rest of their lives.
Normah said they immediately rushed to the scene, where Shamsira broke down.
"I couldn't look at them... the scene. My daughter cried frantically after seeing the condition of the trailer lorry.
"We were at the scene for almost three hours and we witnessed everything... one after another (the bodies) were taken out from the trailer lorry," she said.
Normah said Adeeb Hud has been asking about his father and two brothers, but the only thing she could bring herself to tell him was that they were sleeping.
"My son-in-law was a good man. He always helped other family members. I was very close to my grandsons. But, I accept this as God's will," she said.
The remains of the trio will be laid to rest at the Kampung Chenderong Balai Muslim cemetery in Teluk Intan here today.
District police chief Superintendent Hasron Nazri Hashim said inItial investigations indicated that the driver may have lost control of the vehicle upon approaching a steep and narrow road, causing it to hit a utility pole and crashing.
He said it took about three hours to extricate the bodies of the victims who were pinned to their seats.