Flash Post 293!

My mother passed away at day-break today. When my younger sister–with whom she spent a large part of her life– went and touched her, like she was used to doing in the past 3 months ever since she suffered a near-fatal cerebral attack that left the left side of her body paralysed, to make sure that she was alright, she realised that ma was still unlike on other days when she would greet her by stirring and also wish her a faint good morning. She called out to her husband, to come and make sure that everything was okay. When he touched her and felt her pulse, he realised that she was no more.

My prayer this morning was to thank god for the privilege I had of having her in my life as my mother. She was a tough-as-nails lady even at 91, head-strong, courageous and eager to lend a helping hand wherever she could. I also thanked God for relieving her of her pain and the helplessness she often displayed of lying in bed for days on end without anything to do. Till the morning of the stroke, she had taken a bath all by herself and done some odd jobs around the house to help out my sister. To be truthful to you, my readers, I actually thanked God for transporting her to another house where she would meet up with my father, perhaps, and sit around with him talking, laughing, joking and sharing stories–he about his years already up there while introducing her to the other inmates and she about her years on earth. Has my mother gone back to preparing paan for herself, I wonder! That was one of the things she used to do deftly. I can’t remember of any bad habits she had except stuff the paan (betel leaf) at least a dozen times a day into her mouth.

When we put her in the morgue, I asked our creator why life always ends with death? When a baby is born, there is so much joy yet, when someone dies, there is sadness and mourning. Shouldn’t we, therefore, rejoice in death too? Especially if someone is unwell and dying a slow death in full consciousness!