Jamilah presents Adenan with a rose while he sings Elvis Presley’s ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ in this file photo.
KUCHING: A few days before his death, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem told his wife Datin Patinggi Datuk Amar Jamilah Anu that he loves Sarawak and wants the people of Sarawak to love and care for the state as much as he does.
Jamilah told The Borneo Post yesterday that such was Adenan’s love for Sarawak that just before he died yesterday, he asked his principal private secretary Wan Khalik Wan Muhammad to update him on the latest happenings in the state.
Jamilah, who was married to Adenan for 37 years, was among those who were with Adenan at the Sarawak Heart Centre in Kota Samarahan, where she recalled that he was cheerful in the last few hours before he breathed his last
He decided to take a bath and then put on new clothes before asking to be seated facing the view of the forest from his room.
“He then asked Wan Khalik Wan Muhammad to read to him about what was going on in the state, including matters pertaining to the state’s autonomy, particularly on education and English,” she said.
After Wan Khalik had read to him all the happenings in the state, Adenan asked him to call his wife into the room.
Jamilah said in their moments together they discussed family matters before he expressed his love for his children and her.
“We were talking about our family. He told me: ‘I love my children and I love you’.”
In her grief Jamilah was philosophical over the death of her husband and was thankful he passed on peacefully.
“He was a great man, very noble and sincere to everybody. God loves him and that was the reason why God let him die peacefully without having to suffer and letting his family members and people of Sarawak worry about him.”
Meanwhile, KTS Group managing director Dato Henry Lau, who was among those paying their last respects to Adenan yesterday, said he was very sad about his passing.
“He was doing great things for Sarawak and everyone of us would wish that he would live many more years to serve Sarawak. As a friend, I feel very sad but I also think that it is a loss for the people of Sarawak.”
When asked to describe Adenan as a friend, Henry said their friendship went back many years.
“He was a man of not many words, he was man of integrity – a man of sincerity and a man of intellect.”