“If you survive, you must remember that I love you”

Despite being in immense pain, the young mother still thought about her only child.  The depth of intimacy for her child was immense, unfathomed and ever so subtly conveyed that a mother's love is far greater that anything in the universe. During the Japan Earthquake, the world sensed the strongest pull of humanity in a young mother who made shield of her body to protect her child amidst the disastrous collapsing. She left a note saying, “If you survive, you must remember that I Love you”. Her body was sputtering, rasping and pitch cold, but her ultimate sacrifice was the protective affection for her little one.

It gets me thinking, of all the awful lot of drama, anxiety, anguish and contradictions for the several years. This small thought of appreciation is for you mother… my brilliant, remarkably independent, capable, fierce, gorgeous woman, whose greatest pride is in being my father's wife, and in being my mother.

She is such a true character, in every sense of the word. My ideas about honesty, relationships, loss, success, faith, achievements, love, commitment, integrity, real wisdom and everything is inherited from her. Always sharp and poignant in her talks, she made personal choices not so stern and often wept for being so unsettled. But she never failed to respect the dignity of whoever surrounding her, I say – Who – ever - ! And what more, she is always a fiercely burning ball of fire.

Those days I stumbled for a time to salvage some sense of pulse in and days when I felt off balance, she made me feel fully fiercely loved and now I realize how little I appreciated that all these years.

Mother, I can never be like you. You may not be the idealized version of a mother but you are such a realistic woman – wildly flawed but truthful than words can ever convey.