Unrelenting devotion: Despite all the challenges stacked against them, Norazlina said she is happy with Mohd Nazri because the love of her life is by her side.
KLANG: Paraplegic Norazlina Zakaria broke up with her able-bodied boyfriend to be with a fellow disabled person after forming a special connection upon meeting him seven years ago.
Norazlina, 42, and tetraplegic Mohd Nazri Mohd Zain, 40, first met at a public hospital rehabilitation centre where they were undergoing physiotherapy.
“I could not help feeling sorry for him as his fiancee left him soon after his accident, and since he came from a broken home, there wasn’t anyone to really care for him,” said Norazlina who, in 2007, had just completed skills training when she became paralysed from the waist down following a car accident.
Destiny brought the duo together.
“To help him out, I asked my then boyfriend to take me to Nazri’s house to fill up a Socso (Social Security Organisation) form to apply for a disability allowance. It was there that I realised his plight,” said Norazlina.
On the way back home, Norazlina told her boyfriend that she wanted to break up with him as they were not destined to be together.
Soon after, she proposed to Mohd Nazri. The couple were married six months later.
“It was my ex-boyfriend who helped me arrange the wedding and took charge of my husband’s wedding outfit,” she said, adding that the former has since married and still keeps in touch with her and Mohd Nazri.
Mohd Nazri, who was an air-conditioning installer, became paralysed from the neck down after falling off a building while working in 2014.
Norazlina, the only daughter and the fourth child among five siblings, said her mother had initially disapproved of the match but her four brothers were supportive of her.
“My mum felt that I would have a very difficult life if I were to marry a man with that sort of disability, given my own condition.
“But somehow, I managed to convince her and get her blessings eventually.”
Norazlina, who has been able to walk since 2014, has been taking care of Mohd Nazri full-time at their home at Taman Bukit Rahman Putra in Sungai Buloh.
Due to their spinal cord injuries, it is difficult for them to swallow; both of them only consume milk and have nasogastric feeding tubes inserted into their noses for that purpose.
(The feeding tubes go directly from the nose into the stomach, which does not require them to do any swallowing when consuming the milk.)
“Both of us cannot eat solid food and only consume a kind of milk, which is a meal replacement formula with the required nutrients,” Norazlina explained.
The couple receive the milk from Pusat Zakat every month.
Norazlina also gets a small allowance from the Welfare Department while her husband receives a disability pension from Socso.
“We supplement our ‘income’ by collecting cardboard boxes, tins, bottles and electronics to sell to recycling centres. We could earn up to RM700 a month,” she revealed.
However, after Mohd Nazri fell ill recently, Norazlina said income from the business was halved as she was not able to collect as many items as she used to when she had her husband’s help.
Mohd Nazri is currently severely ill due to sepsis and is being warded at Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, with Norazlina there to take care of him.
“He is supposed to go for surgery as the infection is suspected to be in his bladder but his blood pressure is too low for that at the moment,” she said.
In spite of all the challenges stacked against them, Norazlina said she is happy because the love of her life is by her side.
“I am thankful that destiny has connected me to my husband... We are soul mates in the same boat.
“I will always be there for my husband and he will always be there for me. Together, we will meet all the challenges that come with being spinal cord injury survivors,” she said.
