The old lady had a routine that she kept to, by herself, in spite of losing her memory gradually, as others declared, and on the edge of dementia, as her doctor warned. She lived by herself, alone, at the small cottage near the tree-lined beach by the sea. Her children were all grown up, married, in good jobs, well settled. Her son was in the US and her daughter was comfortable in London. They had their children and she loved her grand kids.
She was widowed, these past ten years and more, but did not wish to leave the cottage to go visit her children or stay with them. They stayed in touch on video calls and visited her every two years. In fact, she spoke to her grand kids everyday, more than she had ever chatted with her own children.
"Let my children live their lives and be responsible for themselves," she had told Ameena, her housekeeper-cook-nurse-caretaker and a dear friend from her childhood years and of the same village.
Ameena had agreed. She went back to her often repeated concern. "You are correct, Saroja," she said. "Mrs. Braganza was called by her children to stay with them in London. She was all excited and happy and gave us a party at the clinic. She sold her house and coconut farms and other properties and gave away all her stuff and traveled to London."
"There she found that she was to work as a maid-ayah-babysitter to her grand children and was also expected to work in the kitchen and put everyone's clothes in the wash and take them out and fold them and put them away".
The old lady nodded politely like she was hearing it for first time. Ameena had spoken about Mrs. Braganza on many occasions. The old lady understood. Probably Ameena thought that the story was forgotten because of her poor memory and that she had to keep repeating the sad tale about Mrs. Braganza, their common childhood friend.
How could she have forgotten her dear friend of these many years? It was not done. The old lady listened to Ameena speak about Mrs. Braganza all these many times. Of course, she had never told Ameena that she had asked her son-in-law in London to quietly buy a ticket for Mrs Braganza and got him to help her to fly back to Goa. The old lady had spoken to the missionary convent school that the three of them had attended together. Her request and a small donation had helped and the seniors at the parish had done the needful and got her settled as a caretaker at the orphanage in the village.
Bharat Bhushan, 17.6.2022
From the series - the very very short stories - the old lady and the sea - a new approach to visit the memories of yesterday
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