"Those who have experienced Paris have advantage over those who have not. We are the ones who have glimpsed a little bit of heaven, down here on earth." - Deirdre Kelly






Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Daadi, in memoriam...


"To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die." 
- Thomas Campbell

The world has lost so many wonderful talented people in 2016: from Muhammad Ali, Glenn Frye and Natalie Cole to David Bowie, Prince, George Michael - and yesterday, Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia). We are saddened, by the passing of these amazing people - and look back on their truly outstanding contributions to the world - and it is fitting that we do so. But tonight, as I was sharing my grief with my fellow friends on social media, a post popped up - a nine year memoriam to a dear friend's Daadi. And it affected me like none of the others have...

Across the street, eight doors down, lives a three-generation-South East Asian-American family. For more than a decade, the family's matriarch-Daadi (grandmother) would take a twilight  constitutional stroll - always wearing a simple but so lovely Sari. She'd sit and rest on the large rock, directly across the street from my house. And every twilight, for ten+ years, we'd smile and wave at each other before she got up and turned for home. To this day I can't explain why but seeing Daadi, every twilight, smiling and waving was my personal sign that all was right with the world.

One Twilight, the summer after our daughter was born, Daadi walked all the way around our cul du sac to our driveway - she had never done that before - bent down, laid her hands on my daughter's tiny head, blessed my baby, then went abut her way. Two years of twilights later, on the day of our son's memorial, Daadi found me sitting on 'her' rock crying. She hugged me, placed her hands on my head and prayed over me. I had no idea what she was saying but her gentle touch and voice brought me calm and such peace. From the first time I witnessed her twilight stroll to her last, I know that this lovely woman impacted her tiny slice of the world, and all those around her, as grandly as any famous person ever could. Thus, as this year comes to an end, I offer an in memoriam for Daadi Katwala.

Vivre! Rire! Aimer!

Temple

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