ENERGY FROM THE WHEELCHAIR

Pic.: Asha D'Souza

Two days ago, my mother-in-law underwent an angioplasty at Jaslok hospital. Yesterday, when I had been there, I saw something very heart-warming. In fact, inspiring!

It was the patient on the next bed, who was all set to be discharged… Her 60-year-old son and his wife were around. What must be the mother’s age? I wondered. Someone told me, it was 85!

What was so endearing was the way this elderly woman carried herself… Nobody would guess that she had just undergone an angioplasty… Her intellect was razor-sharp… Her eyes were as clear as a summer sky… Her ears were as sensitive as a BOSE microphone… Her smile could disarm an entire army…And, her zest could put anyone of us to shame!

My mother-in-law already had a couple of stories to tell me about the elderly lady. “The daughter-in-law tells that she has learnt everything from her mother-in-law,” my own mother-in-law told me, “She can see, hear and speak like a teenager.”

Yes, she could…

Right from the ward boys, ayas and nurses to the rest of patients and their relatives came forward to bid the old-lady goodbye. A young-patient, on the opposite bed, who could not get up, pleaded with his folded hands, “Dadi maa, do give me your blessings,” while his wife came near the wheelchair and touched feet with both her hands.”

Two beds away lay an African patient. He, too, leaned forward from his bed to bid goodbye to the old-lady, while his wife came forward to offer her hand affectionately…

All through the wheelchair journey, the charming old-woman kept greeting one and all on both sides of the passage… With her folded hands and childlike smile, she looked gracious, majestic!

“What a soul,” I exclaimed in my heart, “what a zest!”

When I left, I could feel the energy in my own heart… The old-lady had pumped it into me!

GERALD D’CUNHA