By Alya Nadiah
GOMBAK, 26 November 2019: Death is inevitable and a desire to attend own and first convocation is not something that can stop it from happening.
But for the late Nur Syameen Alyaa it’s somewhat different. She once told her mother that she was “not in the mood” to attend her own graduation in November. This was somewhat a sign of her saying that she might not be alive anymore to see and attend the ceremony herself.
However, her mother had dreamt to see her daughter strong and determined to be on stage to receive her scroll. This was probably the reason that gave her the strength to courageously walk on stage to receive the scroll on behalf of Nur Syameem at the IIUM 35th Convocation ceremony on Monday (25 November).
A Computer Science graduate from Kulliyyah of Information and Communication Technology (KICT), Nur Syameem Alyaa, passed away on 31 October this year due to thalassemia, about a month before her graduation.
Never telling anyone that she was sick, her youngest sibling communicated with her through video call one day before her death to find out that Nur Syameem was very sick that she was not able to talk much. The mother later got to know about it.
“I called her myself and she said that she couldn’t talk much and was having difficulties in breathing. She said that she felt like dying,” explained her mother, Madam Afizan Syarina Mohammad.
“The next morning I asked her elder sister who stayed in Kajang to immediately check on her. Later that day she was warded at the hospital at 11a.m. She passed away at 12 a.m midnight on the same day,” she added.
During her first year, her mother suggested for her to transfer her studies to Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Machang campus in Kelantan so as to be close to home in case of emergency but she insisted on finishing her degree in IIUM.
Even though Nur Syameen Alyaa was fighting an endless battle with her own body, she was a very determined person who aimed to finish her studies despite being far away from her supportive family.
She told her mother that she wanted to work in Kuala Lumpur due to wider opportunities and a better chance of working for an established company.
Her dream to work in a company in Kuala Lumpur after graduating was achieved when she was hired in February 2019 at Payroll Panda, Kuala Lumpur, as a Junior Product Manager. So, she was able to work for nine months before she fell into severe illness.
“Her high determination had caused her to hide her illness from her bosses to the point where she extended her monthly appointment from once a month to once every two months. I insisted her to explain the real situation to her boss to avoid unwanted situation arising and her boss agreed to allow her to continue working,” her mother explained.
That very independent, determined and strong daughter had been fighting a losing battle with thalassemia ever since she was six months old and was brought to hospital every once a month for blood transfusion.
Nur Syameen was infected with diabetes one year before she graduated and that had affected her body system. The last few months she suffered due to uric acid content in her stomach. ***