Remembering Mustaffa Dapat

At Utah Beach, in front of an US Army Sherman tank

My best friend, Mustaffa Dapat would have been 44 today. Unfortunately for me, God Al Mighty called him back to rahmatullah on 28 August 2004, when he was in a coma in a hospital in Caen, due to a rare penicillin poisoning related ailment called Steven Johnson syndrome.

This was one of my greatest regret in life. Only Allah s.w.t. knows the wisdom why Mus was called few weeks short of his 40th birthday.

At St. Mere D'Eglise, the site where the 101st Airborne was dropped the night before invasion. For the longest times since we were roomates in MRSM, we promised ourselves that one day we will come here. We managed to do it only when at the end of his life

I still miss him dearly till present day. The only left is the remembrance of the fondest memory with my dear friend, whom I misses so much. In June 2004, he so insisted that I went to see him in Cherbourg, France, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings, "Operation Overlord". Little that anyone would know, that would his last wish to meet up with me. When we parted, he hugged me in front of the submarine turned museum, Redoutable and till today, I remember and savour that moment.

One day we shall meet again. May Allah s.w.t. bless your soul.