Thursday, January 22, 2009

Life is too short

That is what I have been telling myself over and over again these past couple months, ever since we found out that our friend Poonam was detected with a rare cancer called Leiomyosarcoma. She was one of the healthiest persons I knew, taking care of what and how much she ate and exercising regularly. I was jealous of how fast she was back into her normal size after the birth of their daughter. I wasn’t very close to her, and we met only during certain get-togethers, but having to attend her funeral is something I had never dreamt of.

The whole time I sat there in disbelief as to how fast things had happened and how totally it was beyond anyone’s control. Two months ago she was fit and full of life. They were trying for a second child and hence did not pay too much attention when the nausea set in. Only after the pregnancy tests came out negative, they got more tests done to find out the cause of her sickness. That’s when she was diagnosed with the cancer at its very late stages and two months down the road she left us all. Today all her friends and family gathered together for one last time at her funeral to pay our respects.

At his eulogy, a very good friend of both Poonam and Prabhu, said something which is going to stay close to my heart for a long time to come. He mentioned that even though they were such good friends, they did not meet as often as they would have liked to. Life was just way too busy for them both.

That is so true in all our lives. We are always too busy to spend precious time with those whom we love or do things that bring us fulfillment. Somehow are jobs eat up most of who we are in the quest for having the means for a decent living and providing for our children. I hope we can all get out of this vicious cycle and open our eyes and heart to things that matter the most, cherish the good things we have, live our lives in a way that makes us complete.

To Prabhu, Jiya and the parents, may all of you have the strength to continue on in your lives the way Poonam would have wanted you to.

This post is in memory of:
Poonam Gaur
September 6, 1974 - January 16, 2009

8 comments:

MattuSunny said...

This is so sad & tragic Mala, I am so sorry for your loss and Poonam's family. Hope you are doing ok dear friend, and I agree with you, life is too short and one never knows... we all should make the most of it and spend time with loved ones... we tend to give work and everything else too much priority and are very polite to strangers in life, but take it all out on loved ones...

I am so sorry for your loss. Take Care

joy4love said...

Life is too short, and nothing, almost nothing, is within our control. I'm sorry for this unfortunate event--let's cherish what we have and live life to the fullest.

gaea said...

very moving post mala. also very thought provoking. isn't it senseless that most of the time, it's things like social protocol, artificial deadlines and other silly things that make us give up the things that we treasure? ugh...

i'm sorry about your tragic loss...

Courtney said...

Miss Mala - must be the cycle of loss...just learned yesterday that a family friend's daughter was killed after a mountain climbing fall with her husband. Things can happen just that fast - made me ever more reflective of what (and more importantly who) I have in my life - a wonderful family, an amazing guy and the best friends I could hope for. I too hope to slow down the proverbial merry-go-round and spend more time enjoying each other. :) I'm so sorry to hear about Poonam, my dear.

Mala said...

Thanks ladies for all your thoughts!

Linh and Yogi said...

Sorry Mala. I know what you mean. It's never easy but time will heal and time will give us a chance to live.

MACMD said...

So sorry to be leaving this message late, Mala. It's a terrible tragedy when someone we know is taken from us before they have had a chance to live a full life. I am on completely the same page as you about wanting to spend more time with the people I love and not letting the tug-and-pull of everyday life prevent that. They say life is short, but all too often we forget how short it can be. Many hugs to you. I'll give you some in person very soon...

Closeguy said...

First of all, really felt sad for your loss..
It's so true that when someone close to us leave this world, we wake up..

Otherwise we are so engrossed in day to day activities..

Most importantly the feeling we get when we hear such news..the feeling of - "how trivial we are or Is money & all luxury is really that much important? " ..I am sure you must have experienced it..