The smile

A few words spoken in consolation, a reassuring hand is all that I can extend. A stranger facing an extraneous situation.
I observe the reddened eyes, misty with tears that refuse to fall. Head bowed down, a tremulous smile....

A smile on the face...I look closer. How does one smile through what she has borne?

She left with Him on a holiday, but returned with only memories of Him. Like in a dream...or a nightmare...
Heart Attack they said. They had barely boarded the train when he laid down in unease, never to open his eyes.

Youth and age has no mercy with death. The inevitable hand does strike us as and when it pleases.

The young boy who smiles shyly from the couch knows... yet does not know what has befell him. Does one really understand at any age?

When age and time is sufficiently endured, the death knell doesn't sound so ominous. But what does one do when the youthful are snatched away?

We see the pain in their loved ones.

The smile on her face and her ready words, comforted us in so many ways.
"Dont remind me of the loss", she gently reminded us
"Tell me what you are all doing for the inspection team".
We tripped and slid over our inadequate tongues and gratefully took her cue to make simple conversation. Even joke and smile and pass comments on our lives....

With trepidation we came here to console, but who consoled whom?

The smile I carry with me in my mind and thoughts, to hold for those moments in life when I feel an inadequacy, a loss.

Surely a smile makes a difference to the living, no matter if it is to hide pain.

Comments

  1. Anuradha ShankarJuly 12, 2010 at 9:28 PM

    great one, sowmya! my heart goes out to the family... i believe I can understand their predicament, since i too went through the same at an early age... i was not even 5 when my dad passed away, not suddenly, but after a long drawn illness... and what we went through can never be expressed in words....we just need to go on, because life does not end with the passing of someone... but over the years i have come to realise that my dad is not somewhere far away, but within me...it does not offer any relied from the problems we face, but the awareness gives us the strength to face them!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Simply me!July 13, 2010 at 10:14 AM

    Someone else's passing away inadvertently reminds us to take stock of our own fears, apprehensions, inadequacies, existential gains and losses...

    ReplyDelete
  3. UmaJuly 14, 2010 at 9:15 AM

    So well expressed!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lavanya SriramJuly 20, 2010 at 1:27 AM

    Such a poignant post !

    ReplyDelete

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