Sunday the 17th of February 2008, 1530 hrs
It was a little easier for everybody to accept her passing away, as we all knew the end was somewhere on the horizon lurking for a long time. The suffering she was going through was so enormous, that I would have collapsed forthwith. For nearly a year her disease ate her away slowly but surely. She would sit the whole day and the whole night and wait for her time to come. She could not lie down flat on a bed to sleep, for her lungs had collapsed, and she had problems breathing. It was tiring doing this everyday. She would have three or four pillows piled up to put her head on to rest.
For a few weeks now she has been talking to each and everybody, in the large family she was responbsible in bringing up... sons, daughters, their wives and husbands, grandchildren, nephews and nieces and their wives and husband and their children. It was a big cluster. She spoke to each and everybody to give them a message for their lives. She spoke to me about her own funeral.. how it is to be done.. et all.
She was the only one in my life who would listen to me without any prejudice. She would not take sides.. neither mine nor my enemy's. She would listen.. which was very important. I would complain about my brothers and sisters.. even now at the age of fifty.. but she would listen me out.. console me like a baby,... but never take sides again.
Now she is gone.. who do I go to cry my problems away.. NOBODY. I remember Mahfooz Ali's poem........
I need a mother who would miss me
I need a mother to cry on
I need a mother to know that her son loves her
But she won't let me know her
What I need is a mother
Who is no more now.
It is very painful. But that is the rule of life. We need to go on from here.. without a mother.
Love to all.. take care of your mothers.. she is precious.. she is the only one who would take your nonsense with no prejudice.
John
