A cosmic connection

About 15 years ago I met a young man who had newly arrived in Canada. He was looking for a lawyer and someone introduced him to me. He was buying a house and asked if I could handle his real estate purchase. He was single and brought his parents, who were visiting, when he came over to sign documents at my home. In those days I straddled two careers, my job at MCIS and a sole practice out of my home. Very soft spoken and pleasant he was an emotionally balanced and low maintenance client. I still remember two things about him - he answered the phone with the short form of his name, which was the name of a feminine Hindu goddess. I was struck by the ease with which he identified himself with a woman's name! He also bought a house on a street which was named after the cosmos. He often called me for little things after that. But a year or so after that first encounter I did not hear from him again. His parents were in search of a suitable girl for him and even mentioned this to me. He had just one sister in the States and if he was married off, their life's work would be done, they said. The deal went through smoothly and his file like others languished among my archived files. I forgot about him until about 4 months ago. I often think about all the people who have passed through and continue to wonder what has become of them. I concluded he must have married and settled somewhere. In an exercise 6 months ago, deciding which files to keep, I had set his aside among the scan and discards. 15 years is a long time.

Then 4 months ago, a phone call from a man who identified himself as his dad. "Oh" I said, "I remember you well". In a flash, it all came back. He said "I am calling from California. My son died 2 weeks ago and I am helping his wife get his affairs in order." I was stunned. I had to sit down. So many thoughts went through my head. How is this dad able to think and act practically after such a great loss. A parallel thought was, he had been "persona non grata" till a minute ago and now the flood of memories brought out so many emotions pointing to the relative and contextual nature of all experience, in a purely Vedantic sense. Responding to my stunned silence, he continued "he had a flu and cough and called in sick on Monday because the cough had kept him awake Sunday night. We talked Monday morning, when he called me in India. A few minutes after the call he just fainted. My daughter in law called the ambulance but within half an hour in the hospital, he was gone. My daughter is a doctor, he had been in touch with her and there had been no cause for alarm. We really don't know what happened. You remember how we were looking for a girl to marry him off to? Well he got married soon after and has three children."

Fast forward to now. His wife has since been in touch as I help her navigate the system here. I have never met this girl but feel such deep compassion for her not only because of her circumstances but because of the nice person he was. Who knew the cosmos would connect us in this very strange way!