Friday, 29 September 2017

a life changing event

A life changing event occurs surreptitiously . Like a predator springing on you . It charges softly , out of the blue  , without warnings , and doesn't give you reaction time .

For me , it was my grandmother's death . Seeing her lying there , "ready to go", swathed and bandaged , suddenly hit like a jackhammer . I went falling headlong into a bottomless , dark pit . People were wailing , weeping , but to me , it was like a deafening silence . The ringing of the ears after a bomb-blast kind of effect . In a daze , haze , the world passed by . People came , said kind words and went . It was strange and numbing . I was , or felt I was, suddenly alone . On my own , to fend for myself .

The loss of a parent cannot be described in words . And my grandma was a parent . When I woke from the stupor , people had left , they had a life to live . I was grateful for studies , classes , the humdrum of existence , that buoyed me and somehow dragged my reluctant self out of the bottomless pit of grief .

Overnight , me and my sister , grew up. We took charge of our lives , and my sister took charge of other things besides , a home , my mother and me.

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