I have been grieving since yesterday morning.....I've lost a beautiful friend, taken so suddenly from us.
How can it be that I am enjoying a cuppa with her one afternoon, chatting about the kids, homeschool, life etc and then just over twelve hours later find out she's gone!
Death is so sudden and final.
The closing of one chapter and the beginning of a new.
She touched my life in such a great way and I will sorely miss her.
I can't begin to imagine the pain and turmoil being felt by her family.
I remind myself of that and have been praying for them. Yet my heart aches too.
She was such a beautiful friend, so graceful, generous, loving and accepting, full of wisdom and advice for when I needed it, a ear to listen when I needed it, a really kind person who always opened her home up to me and Rebekah. I will miss her so much!
Her kids and Rebekah are such close friends and I hope that friendship will continue yet I know that things will change for them as a family and I find myself grieving for the inevitable changes.
Rebekah burst into tears when I broke the news yesterday morning to her. We cancelled our outing and stayed home. We were in shock and also grief stricken at the same time. We had a great (for lack of a better word) time chatting about life, death, Jesus, faith and hope. We know we'll see her again but as Rebekah so maturely said to me, "I know that but I'm still sad and I'll miss her". I told her it was ok to feel sad and talked to her about how God can comfort us. Actually, I was amazed at the maturity and level of understanding of death and life through the words coming out of Rebekah yesterday, little did I know an 8 year old understood so much!
Amidst the shock, grief and sadness came over us in waves (as reality sunk in) through the day when we'd pause, hug, talk, cry and reminisce. Needless to say we both didn't eat much yesterday. Even Rebekah said she didn't feel like eating because she was sad.
My heart felt like it was ripping inside of me when I played with Rebekah during the day, with her toys. My dear friends children will not have their mum to play with them anymore. No mum to take care of them, hug them and nurture and love them.
At one point during the day, Rebekah said to me that she was like another mum to her and began crying.
You see, we saw each other weekly for almost a year and our kids played together in each other's homes, in the park and we babysat for each other. She was always so kind and loving to Rebekah which is why she said she was like another mum! What a compliment for her coming from a child's lips.
Ron cut short his day at work and came home in the afternoon. It was good to have him to talk to and process what had happened.
We all hugged each other much more than we normally do!
Some of the things I've learned from my friend were true kindness, grace, generosity and patience. I never once saw her lose her temper with her kids and as Ron reminds me, that is an oustanding compliment! I did tell her that when she was still with us. I'm so glad I did and didn't waste the opportunity to encourage her in that grace she had. Yet there are so many other things I could have told her and planned on telling her but didn't get the chance to!
We will miss her! It will take us time to get over the loss of such a dear friend.
When I left school we were all given a plaque with the quote:
"Only one life, t'will soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last"
I lost that plaque in the move from India to Australia but those words have been etched in my heart and mind and have guided my life and help me focus on the most important: to always live from an eternal perspective. My dear friend exemplified this with her life. This was on my heart all day yesterday.
She didn't care for possessions or a newer or bigger home. Jesus and her family were the most important. She poured her life into her children. Even though some of her kids are too young to potentially remember her when they are grown up, the deposit she has placed in all of them will stand them in good stead I believe.
I am blessed that she came into my life and though I will miss her, I know I'll see her again. I will attempt to remind her children of the wonderful mother they had as they grow up.
Only one life, t'will soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last!
p.s. I've withheld my friend's name for privacy reasons.
Showing posts with label Memories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memories. Show all posts
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Hello 2012
I've been on holidays with Ron and Rebekah visiting Ron's family down in Victoria (a neighbouring state - for my non-Aussie readers). We had a wonderful holiday. It was a very 'social' holiday for us, a bit different to most others we normally have as we spent all our holidays with in-laws and friends. Normally we spend at least a week a two of our holidays just by ourselves but this time it didn't work out that way. Nevertheless it was still lovely and nice to have a break from our normal daily routines and spend Christmas with my in-laws. They are truly a great bunch of people!
Rebekah got to have loads of fun with her cousins on Ron's side and spent lots of time with her grandparents. I'm sure these memories will hold a special place in her heart as she grows up.
I didn't really know my grandparents at all as they all passed away when I was a baby / very young child. After having Rebekah I've come to realise what a special relationship it truly is and she is so blessed to have wonderful grandparents on both sides of the family.
We started back 'school' the week after we got back which was about three weeks ago as we don't follow the school terms.
I have also been busy de-cluttering since we got back. I find coming back from holidays a great time to de-clutter, clean and re-organise in general.
While on holidays, we (Ron and I) usually spend time assessing the past year and talking about the year ahead and what we would like to see change / happen over the coming year. This time was no exception, so we've come back with some good thoughts and ideas which we'll try to implement by the grace of God.
One thing I've already implemented is doing our laundry and some general house cleaning at night. This has helped me be more relaxed in the mornings while we have been doing school work. I felt like I needed to focus more on Rebekah and her work in the mornings without being distracted. It's amazing how this small and simple adjustment has already improved the quality of our school time.
During December our church did a series of teaching on finances and we've been working on some of those things we learned that we need to put in place one of them being saving 10% of our income. We worked out that we only save about 5% of our income but we are endeavouring to change that this year and so we spent some time reviewing the family budget and have come up with some good plans to increase our savings!
Over the last year or so I've gotten to make a lovely friend who homeschools and who lives very close to us. We have decided to do monthly nature walks together this year which I'm really looking forward to. Nature walks and study are fun times for us and I think Rebekah would enjoy it even more with other kids around. We didn't get to do it as much last year and I'm hoping that 2012 will see an improvement here!
I've been also busy catching up with my mum who also got back from her trip to India just before we got back to Sydney. She was away for about 8 months so we've had a lot to catch up on and it's been lovely for both of us and also lovely for Rebekah to spend time with her maternal grandparents.
I'll be visiting your blogs very soon, if I haven't already. In the meantime, here's some pictures from our trip:
Rebekah insisted on taking her three favourite stuffed toys this trip:
Tuppy (puppy) on the far left, Cordie (Corduroy named after that famous picture book character) and last but definitely not the least and the one she is holding is Jakie (named Jacob though I always insisted it was a girl, Rebekah thought it was a boy, maybe secret inner desire to have a little baby brother?). Taken at a motel in Albury:
She has a sense of humour! This was taken outside a historic courthouse at Seymour near Melbourne:
Panning for gold at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat:
Rebekah got to sail for the first time which was very exciting and she absolutely fell in love with it:
Fishing, Rebekah got her first fishing rod and I can see lots of fishing time with daddy up ahead:
Werribee Mansion (near Melbourne), a historic old house with amazing gardens. They had a few fun things for the kids to get involved in as you'll see below:
Rebekah having a try at how they did the laundry in the old homestead:
Playing 'croquet'
and hopscotch with 'Aunt Sally' in the background ( a game where you try to knock the heads off the poles and apparently they were all political figures, some things haven't changed in Australia, we still like knocking our pollies don't we!)
and lastly, on the Monet bridge at Jugiong a few hours south of Sydney on our way back home. My blog header currently has her at the same spot last time we went down that way about a year ago:
p.s: Confession time - I've had this in draft format for about two weeks! :) I'll be around to yours soon, I'm sorry I've not been a good blog follower for the past couple of weeks!
Rebekah got to have loads of fun with her cousins on Ron's side and spent lots of time with her grandparents. I'm sure these memories will hold a special place in her heart as she grows up.
I didn't really know my grandparents at all as they all passed away when I was a baby / very young child. After having Rebekah I've come to realise what a special relationship it truly is and she is so blessed to have wonderful grandparents on both sides of the family.
We started back 'school' the week after we got back which was about three weeks ago as we don't follow the school terms.
I have also been busy de-cluttering since we got back. I find coming back from holidays a great time to de-clutter, clean and re-organise in general.
While on holidays, we (Ron and I) usually spend time assessing the past year and talking about the year ahead and what we would like to see change / happen over the coming year. This time was no exception, so we've come back with some good thoughts and ideas which we'll try to implement by the grace of God.
One thing I've already implemented is doing our laundry and some general house cleaning at night. This has helped me be more relaxed in the mornings while we have been doing school work. I felt like I needed to focus more on Rebekah and her work in the mornings without being distracted. It's amazing how this small and simple adjustment has already improved the quality of our school time.
During December our church did a series of teaching on finances and we've been working on some of those things we learned that we need to put in place one of them being saving 10% of our income. We worked out that we only save about 5% of our income but we are endeavouring to change that this year and so we spent some time reviewing the family budget and have come up with some good plans to increase our savings!
Over the last year or so I've gotten to make a lovely friend who homeschools and who lives very close to us. We have decided to do monthly nature walks together this year which I'm really looking forward to. Nature walks and study are fun times for us and I think Rebekah would enjoy it even more with other kids around. We didn't get to do it as much last year and I'm hoping that 2012 will see an improvement here!
I've been also busy catching up with my mum who also got back from her trip to India just before we got back to Sydney. She was away for about 8 months so we've had a lot to catch up on and it's been lovely for both of us and also lovely for Rebekah to spend time with her maternal grandparents.
I'll be visiting your blogs very soon, if I haven't already. In the meantime, here's some pictures from our trip:
Rebekah insisted on taking her three favourite stuffed toys this trip:
Tuppy (puppy) on the far left, Cordie (Corduroy named after that famous picture book character) and last but definitely not the least and the one she is holding is Jakie (named Jacob though I always insisted it was a girl, Rebekah thought it was a boy, maybe secret inner desire to have a little baby brother?). Taken at a motel in Albury:
She has a sense of humour! This was taken outside a historic courthouse at Seymour near Melbourne:
Panning for gold at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat:
Rebekah got to sail for the first time which was very exciting and she absolutely fell in love with it:
Fishing, Rebekah got her first fishing rod and I can see lots of fishing time with daddy up ahead:
Werribee Mansion (near Melbourne), a historic old house with amazing gardens. They had a few fun things for the kids to get involved in as you'll see below:
Rebekah having a try at how they did the laundry in the old homestead:
Playing 'croquet'
and hopscotch with 'Aunt Sally' in the background ( a game where you try to knock the heads off the poles and apparently they were all political figures, some things haven't changed in Australia, we still like knocking our pollies don't we!)
and lastly, on the Monet bridge at Jugiong a few hours south of Sydney on our way back home. My blog header currently has her at the same spot last time we went down that way about a year ago:
p.s: Confession time - I've had this in draft format for about two weeks! :) I'll be around to yours soon, I'm sorry I've not been a good blog follower for the past couple of weeks!
Friday, December 16, 2011
So long 2011
This may well be my last post for this year, so I thought I'd have a look back at our 2011 (well atleast some aspects of it that I can share online).
Homeschool:
We changed curriculums end of last year so this was our first year with Ambleside Online. I must say it definitely is a rigorous curriculum and reading the weekly schedule online does not give you that sense at all! I didn't even attempt to do everything, probably only 80% of what is set out and I still found it a lot busier than last year for us. It was definitely enjoyable though and I am so enjoying reading all the great books it lists along with Rebekah.
I'm happy to report that we will continue homeschooling her next year as the plan was to take it a year at at time! She is thriving and developing beautifully and we are happy with the progress she is making.
Motherhood and family:
Rebekah and I continue to share a very close relationship, a by product I'm sure that's a result of not just being an only child but an only child that is being homeschooled. We continue to have some amazing times spent together during the week, snuggled up on the couch reading, being out in nature, shopping together, riding our bikes together, etc. We have such great conversations about life, God, etc that happen at the most unpredictable times. I will always cherish these wonderful moments we have together.
Rebekah is the sweetest little girl and I'm blessed to not only be her mum but to be able to homeschool her, but of course I'm biased!
Family:
What can I say about my husband, he is amazing! He continues to be a great support to me, my closest friend, a great provider, a hard worker, the list goes on....Thanks honey, I love you!
We've enjoyed some fun times together this year including a holiday down in Victoria to celebrate Ron's big birthday with his family. While there we caught up with Jeanne and her lovely family. This was the second time we got to catch up with her and it was just lovely to meet her husband this time. Jemimah kept Rebekah amused and the girls had fun together! I'd been meaning to tell you all about this since we got back in April but seeing I didn't get around to it then, here's a wonderful excuse now to show you these pictures:
Ron's and Rebekah's birthdays (combined celebration)
Rebekah and Jemimah:
A koala out in the wild:
A rainbow in the Ocean. I've never seen anything like this before, it was amazing!
Church life: We continue to be very active in our church and life has been extra busy this year for us. Our church hosted a regional conference for the first time and I must say our little church did extremely well and we were all so proud of our achievements. We also celebrated 10 years as a local church in Sydney. This was a big milestone for us and we had a weekend of celebrating with old pastors visiting etc.
Friends: I've been super blessed in this area. God has blessed us with such great friends and speaking for myself personally, I've met some amazing and wonderful mums since I became one. They continue to enrich my life and bless me with their time, friendship, wisdom and generosity. Rebekah also has been blessed with some great friends. Homeschooling an only child is challenging in the sense that we have to be proactive about meeting Rebekah's 'social' needs. We have been blessed with friends that understand this and are so generous in inviting Rebekah to play dates with their kids etc.
In fact, towards the end of last year, even though Rebekah had lots of friends, she really wanted a girl friend who lived on our street, someone she could play with more often. Our street is filled with boys! So, we decided to pray about this and wouldn't you know a couple of months later, a little girl a year older than Rebekah moved in and they've become really good friends, God is good!
Besides 'mum' friends, I am also blessed to have other non-mum friends who continue to enrich my life in many ways!
Family: My mum and step dad continue their work in India that they began several years ago, in the orphanage they run and doing other work there as well. We miss them and are looking forward to their return in under a month's time!
Health: I've had a major breakthrough this year after finding a wonderful holistic doctor who specialises in women's health. Yes, reaching my forties has been challenging in this area, well, it started in my mid thirties really but as with most things, I don't rush into things, hence it took me this long! I can't begin to tell you what a difference the treatment I am receiving has made to my overall health which in turn has been great for my emotional well being! All I can say is GO bio-identical hormones! If you'd like to find out more feel free to email me:)
And last of all, I started this blog to keep an online journal of some aspects of our life that I wanted to pass onto Rebekah one day. It's not the most interesting of blogs in blog land so I'm honoured that the lovely friends I've mad online keep coming back to read and comment and encourage me. To all of you, I wish you a merry Christmas (if you do celebrate it) and a great 2012!
Monday, April 18, 2011
A goodbye, A reunion and Honouring others
Our weekend was a very busy and social one.
On Friday night we had dinner with my mum and step dad who are heading back to India this week.
They are missionaries there, run an orphanage and do other missionary work.
They spend three quarters of the year there and the rest back here in Sydney resting and recuperating but that's another story to tell!
It's always a sad time for me when they have to go back. I have become so much closer to my mum in the last few years (we've always been close) but I think becoming a mother has strenghtened our bonds as we now have motherhood in common!
I also feel sad for Rebekah as she misses them and her paternal grandparents don't live in Sydney either!
On Saturday we attended a birthday party of some friends' one year old daughter. We were asked to be God-parents (as were about 15 others), very cute!
In this couple's culture the first birthday is a big one and this definitely was a BIG one, it seemed more like some weddings I've been to in Australia!
Also this weekend, I had a trip down memory lane which was fun and revelatory at the same time (for me)!
I studied in a catholic school in India run by nuns (some of whom were Irish). Well our school principal was one of them and a good friend of my family's too.
She served in India for 25 years and has been back in the UK for the past 25.
An old school teacher (who is also a distant relative of mine) organised a golden jubilee mass and get together for her (as she was visiting Australia a month after this event). I had not seen her in about 25 years and I was eagerly looking forward to this weekend. When I left India, we had no emails, no internet etc and the only way I could keep in touch with friends was via snail mail. So, I had thought I would never see any of my friends or teachers again let alone a school principal who was herself not from India! Boy was I wrong! Who knew about internet and facebook and the wonders of modern technology and what it could do back then!
Anyway to cut a long story short, we spent Sunday afternoon with her and a dozen or so old school students who now call Sydney / Australia home.
Some of them I remembered quite well, some of them I vaguely remembered and others not at all or were at school at a different time to me.
What was revelatory to me was that the ones who were the extroverts were still the same and the ones who were the quiet types (yours truly for instance!) were also still the same! Time had not changed our personalities!
As this nun walked into the room, some of us felt like it was a dream and that this wasn't really happening!
You see we all loved and respected her so much and never thought we'd see her again.
It was strange also in a way as we (30 and 40 something year olds) took a trip down memory lane, singing some of the old songs we used to sing at school including our school song!
The most interesting and moving part for me was when we all shared some memories of our old school principal.
I came from a broken home and I remember during that traumatic time for us(me and my sibling sisters who also went to the same school), this nun was so compassionate and helpful to my mum and us. She was very generous towards us to say the least.
I always felt she 'knew' our family quite well because of that.
Little did I know that there were many others in similar situations that she had been extremely generous with as well.
There were tears and emotional speeches of thanks for the part she played in some of these girls lives.
It was a powerful time as we honoured her! Ron said it was pretty boring until that point:) Though prior to that he did manage to capture some of my singing and 'dancing' on video to embarass me with later!
So last night, it got us(Ron and I) talking about the subject of honour and how one of our pastors says that God places people in our lives for us to honour because they are training grounds for us to learn to honour Him. How true!
In fact I think we are honouring God when we honour those people He places in our lives and that's what made this Sunday afternoon so special and powerful!
I came home exhilarated and exhausted at the same time (as I've mentioned a zillion times before how I am an introvert and these social things seem to wring me out a bit):)
Hope you all had a great weekend too!
On Friday night we had dinner with my mum and step dad who are heading back to India this week.
They are missionaries there, run an orphanage and do other missionary work.
They spend three quarters of the year there and the rest back here in Sydney resting and recuperating but that's another story to tell!
It's always a sad time for me when they have to go back. I have become so much closer to my mum in the last few years (we've always been close) but I think becoming a mother has strenghtened our bonds as we now have motherhood in common!
I also feel sad for Rebekah as she misses them and her paternal grandparents don't live in Sydney either!
On Saturday we attended a birthday party of some friends' one year old daughter. We were asked to be God-parents (as were about 15 others), very cute!
In this couple's culture the first birthday is a big one and this definitely was a BIG one, it seemed more like some weddings I've been to in Australia!
Also this weekend, I had a trip down memory lane which was fun and revelatory at the same time (for me)!
I studied in a catholic school in India run by nuns (some of whom were Irish). Well our school principal was one of them and a good friend of my family's too.
She served in India for 25 years and has been back in the UK for the past 25.
An old school teacher (who is also a distant relative of mine) organised a golden jubilee mass and get together for her (as she was visiting Australia a month after this event). I had not seen her in about 25 years and I was eagerly looking forward to this weekend. When I left India, we had no emails, no internet etc and the only way I could keep in touch with friends was via snail mail. So, I had thought I would never see any of my friends or teachers again let alone a school principal who was herself not from India! Boy was I wrong! Who knew about internet and facebook and the wonders of modern technology and what it could do back then!
Anyway to cut a long story short, we spent Sunday afternoon with her and a dozen or so old school students who now call Sydney / Australia home.
Some of them I remembered quite well, some of them I vaguely remembered and others not at all or were at school at a different time to me.
What was revelatory to me was that the ones who were the extroverts were still the same and the ones who were the quiet types (yours truly for instance!) were also still the same! Time had not changed our personalities!
As this nun walked into the room, some of us felt like it was a dream and that this wasn't really happening!
You see we all loved and respected her so much and never thought we'd see her again.
It was strange also in a way as we (30 and 40 something year olds) took a trip down memory lane, singing some of the old songs we used to sing at school including our school song!
The most interesting and moving part for me was when we all shared some memories of our old school principal.
I came from a broken home and I remember during that traumatic time for us(me and my sibling sisters who also went to the same school), this nun was so compassionate and helpful to my mum and us. She was very generous towards us to say the least.
I always felt she 'knew' our family quite well because of that.
Little did I know that there were many others in similar situations that she had been extremely generous with as well.
There were tears and emotional speeches of thanks for the part she played in some of these girls lives.
It was a powerful time as we honoured her! Ron said it was pretty boring until that point:) Though prior to that he did manage to capture some of my singing and 'dancing' on video to embarass me with later!
So last night, it got us(Ron and I) talking about the subject of honour and how one of our pastors says that God places people in our lives for us to honour because they are training grounds for us to learn to honour Him. How true!
In fact I think we are honouring God when we honour those people He places in our lives and that's what made this Sunday afternoon so special and powerful!
I came home exhilarated and exhausted at the same time (as I've mentioned a zillion times before how I am an introvert and these social things seem to wring me out a bit):)
Hope you all had a great weekend too!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Autumn memories
Autumn (Fall) has to be my most favourite time of year!
I love the cool after the stifling heat and humidity of late summer in Sydney.
Actually if you are not from Sydney and are ever thinking of visiting, may I recommend you visit in Autumn? It's the best time in Sydney in my opinion. (That's some free advice for you, no charge):)
But more than the cool change in the temperatures,the bright sunny days, the change in the colour of the leaves etc the things that make autumn more special for me these days is the memories it brings back.
You see it was on a beautiful sunny autumn day 7 years ago that Ron and I welcomed Rebekah Faith into this world. She arrived a month early to our surprise but who would complain after having waited for so many years for her!
(apologies for the picture, it's a picture of a picture as we didn't have a digital camera then, this was one of the very first pictures taken of Rebekah)
We had to leave in her in the hospital for a week after I checked out as she was having feeding problems. So after a painful and tiring week, we brought her home on another gorgeous sunny autumn day. (I remember walking out the hospital doors and wondering if we were actually allowed to do this? Didn't we need some sort of permission to take her home? How could they just let us walk off with her? I think Ron was feeling the same way and in that nervous but excited and euhporic state, we didn't buckle her into her baby capsule properly! It wasn't until we'd driven down the road a kilometre or so that I turned back to check on her and realised our mistake, oops! But anyway I've digressed!)
So, autumn and these beautiful days take me right back to that time in 2004.
Also it was in autumn 24 years ago that I migrated to Australia with my mum, step-dad and my younger sister.
I remember the excitement of arriving in this new land that we had heard so much about from our relatives living here.
The cool sunny weather that greeted us, the new experiences of living here, new discoveries, new accents, new ways of doing things, new people etc. Those memories are etched in my mind.
So, each autumn brings back nostalgic memories of these two important events of my life.
The anticipation and excitement of moving here along with those first initial impressions of this beautiful land and the lovely people, and the joy and exhilaration of giving birth to our precious daughter along with those first euphoric days and weeks in my life as a new mum. I just love autumn!
What is your favourite season of the year and is it because of special memories or is it because of the weather?
I love the cool after the stifling heat and humidity of late summer in Sydney.
Actually if you are not from Sydney and are ever thinking of visiting, may I recommend you visit in Autumn? It's the best time in Sydney in my opinion. (That's some free advice for you, no charge):)
But more than the cool change in the temperatures,the bright sunny days, the change in the colour of the leaves etc the things that make autumn more special for me these days is the memories it brings back.
You see it was on a beautiful sunny autumn day 7 years ago that Ron and I welcomed Rebekah Faith into this world. She arrived a month early to our surprise but who would complain after having waited for so many years for her!
(apologies for the picture, it's a picture of a picture as we didn't have a digital camera then, this was one of the very first pictures taken of Rebekah)
We had to leave in her in the hospital for a week after I checked out as she was having feeding problems. So after a painful and tiring week, we brought her home on another gorgeous sunny autumn day. (I remember walking out the hospital doors and wondering if we were actually allowed to do this? Didn't we need some sort of permission to take her home? How could they just let us walk off with her? I think Ron was feeling the same way and in that nervous but excited and euhporic state, we didn't buckle her into her baby capsule properly! It wasn't until we'd driven down the road a kilometre or so that I turned back to check on her and realised our mistake, oops! But anyway I've digressed!)
So, autumn and these beautiful days take me right back to that time in 2004.
Also it was in autumn 24 years ago that I migrated to Australia with my mum, step-dad and my younger sister.
I remember the excitement of arriving in this new land that we had heard so much about from our relatives living here.
The cool sunny weather that greeted us, the new experiences of living here, new discoveries, new accents, new ways of doing things, new people etc. Those memories are etched in my mind.
So, each autumn brings back nostalgic memories of these two important events of my life.
The anticipation and excitement of moving here along with those first initial impressions of this beautiful land and the lovely people, and the joy and exhilaration of giving birth to our precious daughter along with those first euphoric days and weeks in my life as a new mum. I just love autumn!
What is your favourite season of the year and is it because of special memories or is it because of the weather?
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