Page 28 - Seniors Today Jan20 Issue
P. 28
Like an alchemist, whatever she touched became gloriously beautiful
Battle with the self sculpting, the slow and systematic chiselling
Cancer creates a rupture in a life as we have away of our childish impulses for tantrums
known until now. What we think of ourselves, and for instant self-gratification.” It required an
our place in world, and our expectations are all extraordinary force of mind and character.
shattered. “He who has a why to live for can bear with
My mother was a person of immense bravery. almost anyhow,” so what were Mom’s ‘whys’?
That she was an extraordinary woman is an Her deep love of art and making beautiful
understatement. It is very hard to lie on the things gave a purpose. Her deep unflinching
verge of life and be a silent observer, where faith in Krishna, gave her the resilience to
you were once an active participant in all that carry on. Whatever He sent her way she
happened around you. Courage comes in many accepted, stoically, like His prasad. There was
forms. For someone as fiercely independent as a no pitying ‘why me’. Instead the shocking
my mother, learning to accept her helplessness diagnosis elicited the response ‘why not me’.
with grace was an act of courage. This acceptance and faith created a sense of
Struggling every moment, between the ‘I can’t’ tranquillity and serenity. It enabled her to
of the body and ‘I can and I want to’ of the mind, transform the sufferings inflicted by life into an
an epic battle with the self, is a form of heroism. inner strength. In the vast chaos of uncertainty
To know that the disease is unrelenting, and and devastation her spirituality, and reaching
yet not giving up, shows her tremendous grit. towards something intangible but deep and
Looking in the eye, her own mortality, uplifting, made her the master of the greatest of
unafraid, she chose to go on with all the physical all arts - the art of living.
strength and emotional maturity she could
summon. Editor’s Note: Vandana Kanoria’s mother passed away
This resilience was an intensely hard-won at the age of 81, a few days before the publication of this
glory, “the product of intentional character- article.
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