Moving on after losing a parent

Cancer hit our family like a lightning. We were neither prepared, nor anticipating any major changes in our life. But then, that is life, always full of surprises. My mother was diagnosed with Breast CA, grade 2 at the end of 2015. She didn’t make it beyond August 2019.

The treatment period was a roller coaster. Some days were good, some were not. Some times, it took every grit in my body not to run away from my own home. But you suck it up and clean those damn dishes. I was not even present through all of it. I had the luxury of being at work in a far away land. My father was there with my mother through it all. When she passed away, he lost not only his wife but hope as well. He is a remarkable person. He turned his loneliness into re-kindling his passion for painting. Now he paints and paints and paints… We only talk about painting now a days. Mention of mother brings tears to his old eyes and I have to be the strong rock. Through these unplanned developments I grew up a bit as an adult.

You live as though you are going to live for ever. Truth is you will be absent from the face of earth one day and the world will continue to function as is. The permanence of death is unforgiving. Moving on here means accepting what happened and continue living. You matter to may be a handful of people. They will also move on in due course of time. Now I make it a point to enjoy that late morning sleep, eating that chocolate muffin, taking that stroll on the banks of a river…who knows, it might all be lost before I know it.

picture courtesy. https://www.calebwilde.com/category/death/death-of-a-parent/