She, along with six other janitors, earned RM1,000 a month. For her, it was just enough to put food on the table for herself and the five others in her household.
Three weeks ago, though, everything changed.
She was riding her motorcycle to work when she was hit by a four-wheel drive.
Her left leg was crushed in three places, leaving doctors no choice but to amputate it from the thigh down. She also fractured her left upper arm, which needed a metal plate inserted, and broke her little finger.
Her injuries left her in hospital for nine days.
Now, the 33-year-old single mother has been left to figure out how to care for her parents, her two young children and her niece who was left in her ward after her only sister died in March.
“It’s been bad news after bad news for me,” she said when met at her home in Kampung Banggol Dogol.
“Can I get a job with one leg gone? I keep wondering about that.”
Fatimah was divorced in 2012. She has several other siblings but they live far away and are unable to help due to the constraints under the movement control order.
Her 78-year-old father is disabled and her 70-year-old mother is not well. They rear chickens and ducks at the back of their home and get by with RM350 aid from the welfare department.
But even so, Fatimah is luckier than some. Her former classmates, friends and family members have chipped in to help her buy food and other essentials. Some of them even got her a commode as the only washroom in her house is outdoors.
At the moment, she is wheelchair-bound. Although she has a pair of crutches, she cannot use them as her arm is still healing.
“Bathing or using the toilet has been difficult,” she said. “It would help if I had railings in my bathroom so that I could support myself.”
Fatimah is currently receiving aid from Socso. There is food on the table but little else.
She has forms from the welfare department to apply for OKU benefits but is unable to submit them to its office due to the partial lockdown, although FMT emailed a copy of it on her behalf.
In the long run, she hopes to be fitted with a prosthetic leg.
“I hope I can somehow make a living and continue supporting my family,” she said.
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