They have 17 children and no regrets

Mek Bedah Deraman with five of her 17 children at their home in Bachok recently. — Picture by Adnan Mohamad

BACHOK: If other couples have luxury cars, bungalows and other properties to be proud of, Omar Jusuh and his wife Mek Bedah Deraman have been blessed with different assets which they, too, can flaunt.

Their most prized possessions are their 16 children from their 37 years of marriage. The couple also adopted a baby boy, 13 years ago.

Neither Omar, 62, nor Mek Bedah, 58, has any regrets raising 17 children, although the family lives in poverty.

Proving their love for children, the couple from Kampung Alor Ganu here adopted a baby boy after finding that his parents could not afford to raise him.

"Having many children is actually fun. We admit that it is hard to raise them, especially when they were small, because most of them are boys.

"With my small income as a farmer at that time, I could only provide them daily meals of rice and ikan kembung for years. But my children have never complained. We feel they understand our situation," said Omar, who now works as a security guard at a housing estate.

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