A Great Man from Kraksaan
This is a story about my grandpa, Soedihardjo. He was born in Kraksaan, Probolinggo in 1925. He passed away when I was still in 4th grade of elementary school. So personally, I haven’t had that many chances to talk with him, because we lived in a different city and my family visited him and my grandma once in a while. I got a lot of great stories about him from my mother, aunt, uncle, and other relatives too as I grew older then I realized how great he was as a human being, a father, and a husband. Here I want to share two great main values from him that I can take as a lesson and maybe for you as well. From now on, I will refer to my grandpa with “yangkung” a short version of Javanese word “eyang kakung” which means grandfather as that is how I was used to call him.
Be honest and responsible with power we have
Yangkung was a civil servant. He worked in a local Department of Agriculture as a farming counselor. I don’t really know what his level was there but it must be pretty senior since he got an official car facility that he could use. So, one day my mother, who was young and a student, was about to go to school. But, she only had about 5–10 minutes to go to school with a pedicab and she would be late by the time she got there. Then, she asked yangkung to take her to school using the office’s official car so that she wouldn’t be late. But, yangkung refused and said, “That car can only be used for office business only. I’m not supposed to use that to take you to school. It’s your own fault that you can be late”.
What he had done might seem like a little thing but actually at that time and until now, we can still see lots of people abuse the office’s facility for their own personal advantages. Yangkung could actually just use the car right away and nobody would be mad at him, but he didn’t like to take advantage of the power he had.
Be prepared for the future
Yangkung and his family didn’t live a rich and wealthy life, he was in the middle class and even started pretty low. There was a time when he lived in a house made of woven bamboo and a family member couldn’t have a whole egg for himself. They also need to move from a rented house to another one periodically. Despite all the limitations he had, he always wanted his family to have a better future. He enrolled all his children to the best private school in town. That was the kind of school where most of the parents were rich and took their kids to school by car. He wanted to ensure that he could give his children the best education they could access. He didn’t stop at that, he also enrolled his children to English course which was very much not a common thing at that time. He believed that his children would gain lots of benefit from learning foreign languages. He did small things here and there, sacrificed this and that in order to prepare his children for their future ahead. And of course it works.
So, those two were his values that I admire. I wish that I have a chance to have lots of conversations talking about those with him when I am an adult, but I can’t. At least, I can listen to all of his great stories from my mother and other relatives too. Yangkung may have passed away more than 10 years ago, but all of his great values will remain as legacy and valuable lessons. I really hope others can learn something from him too. Thanks.
