Today my beloved granny was discharged from ICU after 10 instense days… It was the same time when I visited home.I went to see her in the hospital… They gave us a visiting card. Only one person at a time would be allowed. Hospital authority allows relatives to visit the patient for maximum of 1 hour a day.
Granny was weak, she had to breathe oxygen through mask, half of her lungs has collapsed not able to take up the oxygen her body requires. Her kidney is almost dysfunctioning. Her tongue has blisters making it more miserable for her to speak and eat. I have never seen her worse than this. My heart broke to see her in such a condition. It’s plain one day or the other, she will leave us but my heart doesn’t want accept this truth.
I remember a time, when granny came to our house sick.I was in class 9. Granny had several urine infection, she was really very sick. She was taken to Chennai for her treatment. After her treatment, she was brought to our home… gradually her health condition improved. My mom is the eldest daughter of her. While the financial aspect of granny’s treatment was taken care by my maternal uncle, all the other aspects were under my mom’s supervision.
It took a while for granny to be stable and lead a normal life… She used to feel cold in hottest days of the summer in Kolkata, she used to bathe in sweat in winter… there were such abnormality in her body. Granny used to feel hungry but could not eat. There was a maid in our house, who used to take special care of her. Granny is a tough woman, she doesn’t like to complain, doesn’t like to see her children suffering for her. She was to determined to recover from the illness, she used to take medicines regularly and follow every instruction given by the doctor with her heart and soul.
Usually I see elderly people very stubborn, not willing to give up on science and technology but granny is polar opposite of that. She would cross the world, do everything it takes to make herself better, now that’s the spirit!
Granny used to tell me a lot of stories, she had a huge collection of stories. She is far less conservative and more frank than any of her children. She has a good sense of humor. She used to talk all the time. Since my board exam was nearing, my mom was concerned that I was wasting too much time talking to granny and disturbing her. Mom scolded me a lot for that. In reality it was granny who inititated the coversation, she was bored, she had to stay at home all the time… she could not talk to mom as mom used to be very busy at that time. Sissy too was quite busy with her studies, I was the youngest member of the house having a little more spare time than anybody else.
Most of the times mom shouted on me for talking to granny while I was supposed to study. There was definitely study time but no “talk to granny/ any family members/ friends” time. I could not shift the blame on granny for starting a conversation but I was annoyed with the fact that mom was getting angry for nothing. I was upset with granny because she did not defend me in front of mom… After a year or so, she moved to my uncle’s house.
It’s just a small incident but it’s a reminder of how stupid and insensitive I was…
