Unconditional love and happy life

 My maternal grandmother is a very important part of my life as I realised I express my love to my loved ones as she loved me. 

My grandmother was a very simple woman who inherited a lot of wealth from her parents. She had a very strong mother who was very authoritative and was managing the lands and labour and was smart with finances. After my grand mother lost her mother, all her property was inherited by my grandmother and grandfather. My grandfather was not smart with money and so eventually lost most of the wealth.

I remember my grandfather passed away and my grandmother started staying more with us and I always felt very close to her. She was very calm in contrast to the world around me. she is not much educated and her world was limited. She was very meticulous with any work she does like cooking, cleaning and household stuff.

I used to sleep with her in her bed during my  summer breaks as my parents both were working and used to be late from work. She used to narrate me her childhood stories about her parents and that she was loved and cared deeply by her parents. Surprisingly, she never complained about my grandfather who brought them from riches to rags.

She moved with us permanently after my dad passed away. She wanted to be with my mother and support in whatever way. She does not understand money and so she is never rushed for time. While I was in school, she used to comb and braid my her so gently which I find it difficult to do painlessly till date.

She was my companion when I was a young 23 year old new mother and had to stay nights with a crying baby. She knew very few things but she loved and cared deeply.

In the past 25 years, I visited her twice a year and except the last one year we always chatted and looked forward meeting each other.

She passed away this year and my mother cared for her very well. 

Her story is very dear to me because she is not rich, educated or whatever standards we aim for to be successful in life yet she has lived a wonderful life and loved deeply. She needed very little materialistic things and she never wanted much or asked for anything. Her desires were regular change of toothbrush coconut oil, shampoo and multivitamin tablets.

She didn’t complain about her loosing her wealth, she was sad when she lost her elder son but didn’t go on about her loss. She accepted life as it came. She was never interested in gossiping and was active and did her chores diligently. She could do only household things and she was doing whatever she can till she was 97 yrs old.

Talking with her was therapeutic for me because there is no rush, no planning, no discussions and nothing to prove just two humans talking simple stuff and having a good time. 

I always wonder about what really matters for living a good life and she comes to my mind. She lived a very simple life, never travelled much, didn’t meet many people yet she was always content, joyful, kind and loving.

She was loved and cared by her parents which I believe made her give love back everyone in her life. Whenever I get stressed about achieving or even during my failures, I remember her and it immediately eases my stress as it puts spotlight on her well lived life with not rushing and not driven by achievements.

Once I read a beautiful quote ‘ All we need is just some love’ and she lived by this.