Loss

Yesterday I lost a dear uncle.  We called him Kannan Mama, fondly.  He was a very fit and disciplined man shy of 70.  Had recently become a facebook "friend" posting comments and sending emails!  I took it all for granted not complimenting him for adapting technology with such ease, at his age.  It was from a very preventable cardiac arrest.  Nothing an angio could not have taken care off, I believe.  The churning in the pit of my stomach has not stopped since the phone call.  In the unlikeliest of places, a gorgeous apartment, with a view of the sea, amidst an avenue of trees on a beautiful summer day, death had come knocking.  Unannounced.  His body was in an icebox in that apartment, looking well dressed and pious with the ash on his forehead a premature fixture of years of prayer.  As I stay here among old people,  I am shaken by the immediate and visceral realisation that death cannot be defied.  No matter his call with me last week promising to meet or the text just an hour prior.  So close yet no cigar as they say.  Eight years ago when my Dad died he had made all the arrangements.  He was the first person early that morning to arrive and console us.  Sadly, he is not around to hold our hand through his death. My only consolation is that I was meant to be here at this place and time to say a final goodbye.  He would have wanted that.