Another heard quote became a lesson learned!!💝

 

I lost my grandpa this year on the 24th of April. A person with the softest heart and the bravest mind. Always standing in the balcony observing things around, cracking childish jokes on which we both used to laugh so damn hard making no sense to anyone around. He was very fond of sweets and always used to bring some type of sweet at home; there has not been a single day when we didn't have some dessert till he was with us! Always ready to help even if he has too little for himself. He was the lifeline of our family, you know like that one person who is that hand which holds every rope together!! Our trips were lifeless without him, we couldn't even think of going somewhere without him, in fact, we planned our trips only for him sometimes. I remember one day I was sharing with him that "you know a company came today in our college for campus placement and offered 75k to 1lac monthly to our seniours appeared in the interview" and he said I'll wait for you to have an income of 1lac. Whenever we used to talk about some luxurious thing and would make plans to buy something expensive he used to mention jokingly "we'll buy this from your 1lac". My father stays abroad. He did every possible thing that could make me happy or that which a father does! From waking me up for college and pushing me to reach the bus stop on time to making fun of my everyday bathing habit and insisting to have a schedule. I never felt the absence of my father.

I remember during the lockdown, whenever I used to hear news of someone's death, I used to check my grandpa in the night 2-3 times. I used to look at his stomach whether it is moving or not and used to think what would I do without him? How my life would be without him? It was the beginning of the April month when corona's terror was at its peak, my grandpa had a little fever and cold, as he didn't get better within 2 days we had his covid test which turned out to be positive, of course!! I was shifted to my aunt's place along with my mother and brother since I was suffering from typhoid and was at high risk of catching covid. My grandpa was not informed about "WHY" I was shifted there!! The night he was moved from Indore to another city for his treatment since we couldn't get enough oxygen here and hospitals were full as well, I was brought to meet him, he was sitting on the bed with the oxygen mask on his face and he said "you don't care about me, you haven't come to meet me even once in these 10 days" unknown to the fact, I so damn wanted to meet him but wasn't allowed to do so, and my eyes were filled with tears!! Within 8 days of him being shifted from Indore to Shahada on 24.04.2021 at around 10:30 pm, we get the news that he is no more. And we were shattered.

We did every possible thing to keep him with us. I have seen my uncles, my brothers, struggling to get a single oxygen cylinder. They use to stand for 2-3 hours to get just one cylinder. Struggling for medicines, to get a bed!! We were not aware of what day, what day, what time it is!! Sometimes my brothers used to come and go late at night as well for cylinders, my aunts and uncles were always around my grandpa with their masks on, taking care of him checking his fever and oxygen level every now and then. Those 20 days were the hardest of our lives!!

Now, here's the main part. It's been 7 months since his demise and we obviously have him in our memories, but we no more cry over him instead we smile at memories we've shared with him. Yes, we do get emotional sometimes while talking about him but there's no more breakdown happening. The question I used to have when he was alive that what I would do without him, I have its answer now "LIFE GOES ON"!! When you lose one reason to live, Almighty gives you another one!! With this, another heard quote became a lesson learned for me!!

-SAKINA MALUBHAI