Good Bye, Mbak

College years.
They are the times when I found my 'grown-up' soul: independence, determination and fighting spirits, survival, tolerance, reality and many others. I felt the urge to stay away from my family and got more 'outside interactions' in most of my college life.

And that's when I knew mbak Inung.
A bit aloof and yet diligent, humble, observant and helpful. My last project with her was when she was my mentor in doing my thesis. Military stuff? That's just her cup of tea. So there we were. Together finishing my writing about Australia's military strategy and whitepapers. I've got some help from my other mentor, too. With her detailed inputs and his strong knowledge on Australia and its political system, I finally got my degree.

As a friend, I never saw her laughing loudly over jokes. But if I mentioned 'football' and the players, especially the English and Italian ones, her eyes sparkled and so many words would come out of her lips. Yes, she loved football so much. So much that when she finally went to school to England and had the chance to watch the games there, all her statuses in her FB account were about football: the game, the score, the players, the feelings.

Then one day, June 17, 2010 she had an accident. She took an ojek to a building near FISIP campus area. There was a taxi parked on the side of the road. The door suddenly opened and hit the motorbike. She fell on her head and had been in a coma since. When I visited her in the hospital, a half of her head was shaven revealing a surgery mark. She was thinner than the last time I saw her on the pics. Talk to a person in a comma condition and he/ she can 'hear' you. I am a believer. So, I talked to her and she gave reactions shown by the stronger beat on the screen. I said my goodbye between my quiet cries.

This morning, I heard the news. She died. Not much details: the when, the how, the where. After 2 months and 6 days, God finally called her to be by His side. Good bye, mbak.