You gave me my life

          Life is a series of events in which one comes across many challenges. These challenges require much experience to overcome. Sometimes one faces such challenges at an early age when he/she has no experience, no knowledge, no wisdom. At such times, knowledge from elders is a blessing.
          My life started on June 5th, 1986. I was born in the morning. My father is a marine engineer and he was working overseas at that time. My mother was staying with my grandparents. When my mother was admitted to the hospital, my grandmother stayed by her side and I opened my eyes in her presence. My grandfather used to go to work in the early morning and return late at night at about 9 or 10 p.m. Both were very happy at my birth. My grandmother took great care of me. I used to wake up in the nights and when my mother would start changing my diapers and other things, she used to make my mother go to sleep and do it herself. I was almost two when my sister was born on 21st April, 1988. She was born in the presence of my father. My father's work required him to go overseas for a few months after brief periods of time, in which he stayed with us. When he went, my mother would come to stay with my grandparents. My grandfather would go to work in the morning and so my grandmother took care of us.
          She was a very hardworking woman. She would cook food, clean the house, go shopping and when she finished everything, she would start sewing clothes for my sister and me. My grandparents had servants, because my grandfather went go to work early and return late at night and my grandmother could not manage their large house alone. She made cotton balls for me to play with. When I was a little older, she gave me my very first pocket money. She was a really good cook and when I asked her to make something for me, she would do it. She was really hardworkng and I was impressed by it when I was a little kid. I still am now. Her personality created in me a passion for hard work, love, honesty and self-confidence. I did what I thought was right, she kept me innocent.
         My uncle, my mother's brother, has set up his buisness in Canada and has settled there with his family. My grandparents went to visit them in the summer of 1998. When they returned, my grandmother was a little weak. My mother was concerned and she came to stay with her. Me and my sister came with her. My father came to see her almost everyday. We took great care of her. But her health continued to fall slowly. She was not able to stand and walk without support, hold things in place and control her urine. When my uncle learned of this, he flew back to Karachi and stayed with us. My aunt and cousins also arrived after a month. She was given much treatment and admitted in the hospital many times. But the doctors could not even predict the disease she had fallen prey to. Her health got worse and she was not even able to raise a finger. After six months of confinement to bed, she finally left this world on 8th Feb., 1999 at the age of almost sixty nine. God bless her.

I look at the sky and see your face
Smiling down at my sole being
I remember the way you used to live
For me, you sacrificed everything

You worked, you smiled
Doing nothing was a sin to you
Teaching me the rules to live by
Keeping me busy in something too

I lost you in the depths of death
You said goodbye to the sky all blue
If you ever want to return from heaven
I'll be waiting down here for you

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