About 5 evenings in a week, if not more, I dedicate to walking for about one hour.Something that I thoroughly enjoy as that's really the time which is undisturbed 'me time.(So much so that I even try to avoid walking with any one else)
Yet there are 'social niceties' to be considered, such as saying 'Hello' to familiar faces, or then even stopping for a moment to have a brief chat.
But what happened last evening completely threw me.So much that I forgot all about walking, me time, et all.
As I turned a particular corner and came upto a fountain that's located in a lovely spot in our Complex, I saw one of my neighbours, an old lady beckoning to me. For a moment, I simply waved at her and went on.Until I heard her call me by name. Which was something that I couldn't possibly ignore, so I turned back and came towards her.
Polite chit chat over, she told me in no uncertain terms that the reason she wanted me to sit anad talk with her was quite simply that she was LONELY. Even more on that evening than what she normally felt.
Which surprised me, but only for a brief moment.
For I knew that she lived in the midst of her family.A loving son and an equally loving daughter in law, grandchildren and a maid. Yet there was also this clear and vivid mental picture in my head...Which is best descibed by the words..
A fish in a large, happy pond, now having to live in a glass bowl.
Simply because of circumstances at that point in time.For having lost her husband some time back, topped by a series of surgeries, she was no longer in a position to run anad maintain her own establishment.
Which is what she was sorely missing.Her own way of life and living..
Al of us, including her own family, have their own way of life and living too.
And she is left on the fringes of it all.
Quite simply..... feeling LONELY.
I did what I could do, at that moment.Simply held her by the hanad and told her to come visit me and talk to me anytime that she wanted to.
But she surprised me.
For with very great, dignity, she replied, "Even if you stop by during your walk and talk to me, just as you have done now, that's all that I really want.Thank you."
Loneliness--How true!!!But i am sorry what age can do to us.I feel with dignity everything can be dealt with.Sonal
ReplyDeleteJust so true..its 'their free life' they miss. The household they once managed, the little 'kingdom' they rule. Hope every son/daughter realises that old parents who are brought here, are happier where they spent most of their lives, though we bring them here mostly, keeping their well being in mind.
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