rtt1152
So my best friend who lives in Goa, karishma (the only other adult who calls me Aai, because I call her kari mom. We reconnected as friends when we became young mothers, at the same time, till then I only vaguely knew of her as a senior from school.) is in town because her father passed away very suddenly, yesterday. So Uncle was the sweetest old man in the most deadly situation. He was diagnosed with a buccal mucosa cancer 8 months back, posted for surgery, but found to have an EF of 20 percent so deferred. 6 months ago he had a syncope, fell, and broke his hip. Dnyanesh operated on him at bhatia, and that day I swear I lost 10 years of my life! It was so challenging to hold onto him, I remember telling dnyanesh at the end "just wind up fast, I can't hold onto him much longer." I'm not exaggerating when I say his ECG resembled a PEA (pulseless electrical activity) except he HAD a pulse! His right atrium was dilated and the sinus node all over the place! By God's infinite grace he came off table and went home and yesterday he died in the manner kari mom and I had prayed fervently for: in his sleep. No shout, no cry, no whimper. Aunty shouted "chalo ji," in the morning when she woke up (she's a sturdy handsome Panjoo lady with a long dyed black plait till her waist) and Uncle didn't stir. What a way to go!! My fears were of the tumour invading his neck, the nodes were already big by the time I had seen him in OT, my fear was of feeding and breathing difficulties. He cheated all that. What naseeb! I'm so so grateful for that! So I met karimom to condole and catch up with life in general, since she very much has a similar nature to mine. She and Varun baba moved to Goa 6 years back and have chosen to live sustainably. They have the ideal lifestyle, in nature, surrounded by a heap of dogs, and their daughter goes to part time school. For that, she is insanely competitive, ridiculously intelligent and far more oriented about worldly things than my two dumbos at home, who are currently mentally living on a race track in Austria. You know OB, this is the third friend whose parent has passed away in the last month. Suddenly I am seeing their age, their fragility. I can't tell you how thrilled my folks were after Ma's party. All their friends messaged them sweet notes, and they were bursting with pride that they could host all of them in a gracious manner. It made my heart swell to see their joy. I don't care to throw big parties, for random people to come and make stilted conversation. But seeing my parents joy in hosting a party arranged by their daughters for the older generation, seeing their unbridled excitement, made my heart full. I feel it might be the last of such occassions, because that's how ephemeral life is. I will have that memory in my cortex etched forever. #gratitude
ND abandoned the Hep-J. It was for a lap chole which had gone bad in Terna medical college, now the patient has a traumatised CBD and nothing can be done about it. He put in a drain and came out. So it's MaMo at 3pm and then done for the day:)
I do hope someday you read the FAMILY short story, and find out the clues to the characters.
Take care always,
Aai