Enduring Memories

Dear All,

this is not a fiction that i came up with , its true , my mom passed away 9 years ago . My family went through a difficult time , but we were all there for each other , i hope i will be able to relate to some of you who have gone through some sad and bitter moments in your life.Life has to go on , but the memories will live forever .

My family is small, I have a younger brother Venoth Khanna (we call him Khanna), mom and dad. We live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we’ve always lived in a city except for when we were younger, I was 5 maybe and my brother was almost 2, we were in our grandparent’s house, a typical village house nearby an old mining pond up the hill, because both our parents were working, anyways we were there not long, maybe a couple of months. My parents finally managed to get a babysitter back in town and realized that their children were best suited living in an urban jungle. Live was good, we were not rich, dad was working as an assistant editor and later became a journalist for one of the local newspaper and mom was an admin secretary in a housing development office. We had a happy childhood, it was full of fights and arguments and happy memories, since he was four years younger than me, I was always the bully in the house, until he turned 13 and grew bigger than me and I had to stop bullying him for fear that he might beat me up to a pulp.

We started schooling and life went on, all this while we stayed in a small flat .I finished my high school worked for a couple of months while waiting for results and after a year enrolled in a fashion design college. Khanna graduated high school four years after, undecided about his future.

Mom was still working when I was in high school and dad retired early and was traveling at least once a year for 2 years in a row to India for his research on temples, mom was a diabetic and she was not taking care of herself properly due to work and stress of being left alone most times of the year. Whenever my dad comes back there was always arguments in the house and we kids always keep out from these incidents, as much as they love each other , they would argue and make up within hours, we were a typical family with working parents and financial problems along the way. Somehow we always managed to overcome our problems and always were there for each other.

After I graduated from fashion school and my brother started working, mom fell sick, her diabetes was bad and she developed bronchial pneumonia, coughed a lot and was admitted in the hospital, tests were carried out and doctors found that she has also developed some kind of heart problem and her heart function has decreased to 17% and the chances of survival were quite thin, the whole family was devastated but stuck together, dad was affected the most, he was strong for us but deep down we knew he was crying a river for her, the love of his life. Amazingly with god’s grace mom got better and was discharged, we took her home and dad was always there for her, we always spend as much time as we can with our mom , we watch movies together, have dinner together, mom loves to gossip , so she would ask me to sit with her and talk about what’s happening around the neighborhood, knowing very well that I hate to gossip especially about the neighbors, she had this good neighbor friend of hers who used to come and accompany her every afternoon and update her on the latest news around the world and the neighborhood. Mom spends a lot of time reading, dad too, which explains why the house is full of books and now I have inherited their habit, and I am proud of it.

Few months after that mom was admitted again for her heart problem and her almost failing kidney. It was a private clinic this time so that we could visit her anytime and be there for her just in case. One early morning, around 2 am, we received a call from the hospital saying that mom had a stroke, we rushed to the hospital, her doctors were there, and she was in the radiology for a brain scan. Everything went well, it was just a very minor stroke, for the second time she survived, but we couldn’t see her suffer, we always put up a happy front and cry inside in silence. She came back from the hospital and we didn’t know at that time that it will be the last.

At home, things were bleak and miserable, mom was deteriorating in front of our eyes, so much so that she needs someone to assist her to bathe and go to the bathroom, she used to be such an independent spirit and looking at her now broke our hearts. She was suffering so much in pain and sometimes we would pray to god that he takes her and release her from all the suffering because she is such a good person and doesn’t deserve this.

One morning, as usual dad was feeding her coffee with a spoon (she loves coffee and must have it everyday) she drank some and just lied back down on the floor without speaking anything. I was in the room , I heard dad calling me to come see mom , when I came out we knew what was happening, I called my brother at work , she was still holding on to her dear life, around 1.15pm Khanna came back , all three of us were there holding her hand and kissing her forehead when she finally let go.

It has been 8 years now but it still feels like yesterday. Dad has been there for us, being the best mom and dad and still is, Khannna is married now, so its just me and dad now. Even though we don’t see him as often as we like to, we will always have our memories together. Till today we talk about mom and the happy memories we had together.