We were planning the last death rite ceremony for my Dad just after Christmas. It can be done between 9 months and one year after death. Although the most important person is the son, who has to perform all funeral rites for his parents, we had planned it now as we will all be together. Once I go back home at the end of December, I'm not flying anymore because of my pregnancy.
We won't be having the ceremony for my Dad just after Christmas. The local Hindu priest, who performed the other death rites for my Dad, was in a car accident last week. The car slipped on black ice in the early morning and went into the path of an articulated truck. His wife was killed instantly and he is in a coma on a ventilator in intensive care.
His three children are aged 16, 14 and 8. They weren't in the car. They already had to attend their mother's funeral without their father.
Life can be so shocking sometimes. Hanging on by a thread. One minute you are in one reality and the next you're somewhere completely different and totally alien, no choice, this is the way it is now.
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Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has supported me this year through the blog. Your comments and emails have meant a great deal to me. Friends "in the internet" who have been present when friends IRL were not.
From July 2006 to July 2007 was the most difficult year of my life. I have been through times when I wanted my life here to end - at first so I could join V. and be with him, but later just so that it, I, could be oblivious. But I am still alive.
I hope it remains the most difficult year of my life forever and that I never have another one that is harder.
6 years ago