"Visit us again" she said.
How would you be if someone told you that you won't live for long?
She's a fun loving lady in her 50's who's terminally Ill and in the last stage of cancer. She's been taken care at a palliative centre called Hospice which is a mini version of a hospital which focuses on the quality of life for patients who are suffering from a disease at a stage which has no cure. She had a few days or months to live. Which she's aware of.
I was moved. To be honest. The sadness in the eyes of family members who had come to admit them or visit them was visible. Their swollen, tired eyes from days of sadness was obvious.
Was there for two hours. Sang a song to entertain them. The happiness they got from it meant the world.
On an average, 1.85 people die in that hospice everyday. There were people who couldn't understand anything. Blank expressions. A lady who did 30 mins of shirsasan (head stand) everyday was suffering from brain cancer and almost immobile. A man who was probably in his 60's who was expression less. His eyes were blank. I can never forget that.
We went there for volunteering. To give.
Little did we know, we would come back taking lifelong learning.
I was moved when I looked at them. In tears.
These are people who knew that they are dying and that nothing can cure them, but they were there to enjoy the moment.
That's all they have. For sure.
My planning of retirement. Compounding mutual fund investments and all went for a toss. Here is someone just like me who's life has turned upside down completely. You plan something for your life and life has its own plans.
The biggest regret that they have, told the hospice coordinator, is their want to settle relationship issues. Not money. Not property. Not riches. But people. People whom they loved but stayed apart from for whatever reasons. The ones who gave them sadness but also happiness for whatever reasons. The ones who were the farthest but also closest. The one who meant nothing yet everything.
Those two hours meant so much to me. To be grateful for being who I'm. But also made me realise on the stuff I took for granted.
When we put things into perspective, we realise what we are doing with the time and health and endowments we have got. Instead we spend it in some race. Accumulating stuff as if we are the owners of time. Living with people unhappily as if life is 100 years long.
No. It isn't. And I'll go back to my Mt Everest blog to remind myself of what's most important .
Because we will have an end someday. And hopefully we reach there a little drunk, fulfilled with all that we wanted to achieve.
But to that lady, I'll come back to see you there. I pray for you and send all the love and kindness i can. Stay strong.
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