A Life That Wasn't

Today’s post is about someone, whom I had not known or not kept in touch with. I had a neighbour when I was growing up. Someone of my mother’s age. I remember, every night she would howl as her drunk husband would beat her up. Year after year, life delivered pain and anguish. Many years later when I had moved away from that place, I found out that in an unfortunate accident her drunk husband fell from a height and passed away while he was visitng someone. She had a son, and she pegged her hopes on him to reclaim a life that never was.

Son got married, got hooked onto drugs. Wife left him and the son beat his mother for money, who had remained the sole bread winner for the family. The son was almost always absent into oblivion.

Few months ago, due to a municipal mishap she consumed contaminated water. Misread her medication and consumed it such that all her organs failed slowly while her son was no where to be seen. She battled slow death on her own in the slient corners of the humble abode that she had.

Another life, scarred, forgotten and uncared for. I was not particularly close to her. But when I heard this I felt extreme sadness. I felt like there is no one to remember her, everyone failed her. Every single person in her life. She was probably one person who could truly empathize with my mother when she had her own struggles. I don’t know for sure, but I know they shared some friendship and maybe the common ground for them was to be the women, whose life became all about being a caregiver to able and disabled bodied men.

So here I am remembering her to tell myself, that someone is thinking about her. Her life mattered in whatever little ways it did. Maybe it chisled a part of who I am. I find it utterly depressing to accept that so much struggle for so little in life. The life that wasn’t

I hope there were moments in your life that were happy and hopeful. And you are finally in a happy place, among people who only have love for you.