Life is beautiful....

Life is beautiful!

 

Jennifer was lying on her bed and was staring at the ceiling. Various doubts were arousing in her mind. She had just attended her friend’s dad’s funeral. Her friend, Jess, did not cry a bit but her face still looked blotchy and eyes were tired and sad. When she met Jennifer in the church where she was expected to recite her dad’s eulogy, just before her name was announced, she let go Jennifer’s hand and whispered to her, “I am going to make his life beautiful.” Jennifer didn’t understand this. How was Jess going to make his dad’s life beautiful, when he has already lost his earthly existence? She was now looking outside the window, as if the nature would give her the answers, which the ceiling couldn’t. The afternoon sun bathed her face and all she could see was tall trees, some bungalows in a row and children chasing each other in a small park, amidst everything. That was her neighbourhood.

There was the sound of the door knob turning and Jennifer’s attention was diverted towards her mom standing at the door. She was a middle-aged woman, thin, tall and her hair was tied in a small pony. Her face was calm.

“ Jenny, your lunch is ready dear” she said, sitting beside her on the bed.

Jennifer got up and looked at her mom. She looked kind of tired. Her eyes said that.

“Can I ask you something mom?” she enquired, letting her mom’s silky hair slip through her fingers.

“Of course Cher” her mom knew a bit of French.

Jennifer told what Jess had told her before reciting her father’s eulogy and continued,“Jess’s dad is no more. How is it possible to make his life beautiful?”

Her mom bit her lip and thought for a moment. She looked at her blue-coloured apron and said slowly, careful to not to miss out anything, “What Jess meant was that she would try her best to be a good daughter. She would lock all the things in her memory that her dad had taught her. In this way, she would never disappoint him and would make his life beautiful. He is out there somewhere. Not physically, but yes, definitely in her and in her mom’s memories.”

The meaning was slowly seeking within Jennifer. She nodded continuously while her mom was explaining her.Her mom then looked at her, the look which she gave her while teaching her maths (which she hates) and continued in a serious tone, “Life is beautiful Jenny. Its quiet painful to lose your loved ones. I felt the same when I lost mine. But we can still cheer them up by doing the right things and remembering them in our prayers. By being happy and spreading goodness. Just as an animal dies, the nature mourns over its loss but then changes the animal into manure that would let the land breathe and then trees and other species of plants grow, spreading their shade and also blessing us with the gift that is to live. It is a cycle, so magically interconnected and interrelated. But yet we take it for granted. You move on and so does the dead. But in some other form.”

Jennifer hugged her mom and tears were trickling down her cheeks. She recollected her English poetry class where her teacher recites monotonously:

“Life is to care, life is to share, brings us together, when our hands are bare.”

Indeed life is beautiful....