KUANTAN: This year's Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebrations will be forever etched in the memory of Norasiah Jamil. After 36 years, the 53-year-old was reunited with her former secondary school chemistry teacher Pak Lin Haw, 66, whom she last met in 1987.
Norasiah, a mother-of-two, has been trying to locate Pak, whom she fondly called 'Cikgu Pak', for more than three decades before she managed to track her down last month after a Facebook posting about her mission took social media by storm.
Norasiah said she obtained her former teacher's contact number from several of Pak's close friends last month and kept in touch through phone calls before Pak visited her on April 23 - the second day of Aidilfitri - at her house in Indera Mahkota here.
"It was an emotional moment when Cikgu Pak stepped into my house with her husband...I greeted her before we embraced each other tightly. Several of my friends, including classmates, joined the reunion.
"We spoke about our memories during school days at SMK Alor Akar to our current lives and families. I showed Cikgu Pak pictures taken during our young days at school and she slowly managed to identify us who have all grown up.
"My house was filled with laughter and tears of happiness as everyone took turns chatting with her. Although 36 years might have passed, everything seems to have only happened recently," she said when contacted today.
Meanwhile, Norasiah said she first met Pak after moving from Taiping, Perak, to Felda Lepar Hilir 3 near Gambang here in 1987 when she joined SMK Alor Akar here.
"Cikgu Pak was my Form Five class teacher and taught us Chemistry. My family stayed in Felda Lepar, while I chose to stay in the hostel provided by the school.
"After Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), I was working as a food stall helper in Gambang and was planning to join the army but since I scored well in the examination, I was offered the Electrical Engineering degree programme at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in Johor.
"Since my family could not afford to pay the university entrance fees, I planned to decline the offer but when I told Cikgu Pak, she advised and assured that she will find a way to pay the fees and ensure I enter university," she said.
The eldest of 10 siblings, Norasiah said she remembers before travelling on a express bus with her father to Johor to enrol for university in 1988, Pak was responsible to help raise money to pay the fees and handed her an envelope containing the cash.
"The funds provided by SMK Alor Akar's Parent Teacher Association, my father (borrowed cash from a relative) and Cikgu Pak allowed me to set foot in UTM. I will never forget it. After five years in UTM, I graduated and worked in Shah Alam, Selangor," said the former engineer who now runs an online plant business.
Meanwhile, Norasiah said when studying in UTM, she seldom returned to Kuantan as she used to spend the semester holidays working at fast food outlets in Kuala Lumpur.
"I have always been trying to locate Cikgu Pak and even went to my former school to go through the teachers records, but no one knew her whereabouts. All the pictures I took during my school days were damaged along with my wedding album during the floods which hit my previous house in Sungai Isap Damai here in 2001.
"Recently, my nephew found a picture of me together with Cikgu Pak at my mother's house in Felda Lepar and I decided to upload the picture on Facebook to locate Cikgu Pak. Some of my friends who worked as teachers helped to share the picture in their WhatsApp groups.
"My posting went viral and I started to receive a lot of response. Some people from Cikgu Pak husband's hometown in Sekinchan, Selangor, recognised her and a church member who was in the United Kingdom contacted me to provide information.
"The best part is that not only I managed to get in touch with Cikgu Pak, but some of her long lost friends managed to trace her," she said, adding Pak had opted for early retirement due to health reasons.
Norasiah said after their first meeting last week, they were planning for a bigger reunion with the rest of her classmates along with Pak.