I called up my brother Kalim today, the fourth one among four
brothers and a sister. He is physically not on par with the others, and
he could not even finish his high school either, despite all the sincere
efforts he made, it did not work out for him.
My mother
was super defensive about him, and perhaps I am too, since my father’s
death in 1977, and through early Nineties, I took care of the family,
then my youngest one took care of it until a few years ago. Many times
before her death, my mother had asked me to take care of Kalim- and that
was a promise I took seriously, always defensive about him, and always
ready to take care of him, and made sure no adverse decisions were made
in the family to affect him. My sister and I are like twins, never
fought in life, and always understood each other. But the only time I
have fought with her to the point where she did not speak with me for 4
hours was defending Kalim on a silly thing.
Today, I
called him up, and said that the monies coming from the sale of our
Parents property this month, would completely free me from that promise
to mother. He is on his own now, with his kids making good monies as
well. It was such a relief to me; I don’t need to concern myself about
him anymore.
Then I suggested that a certain amount of
money be placed in fixed deposits in his name and his wife’s name – as a
security for old age, I would not be comfortable without it. Then he
said – Mother has already done that…. My first response was, oh mother, I
thought I was not sending enough money, but here you are, doing the
right thing, taking care of the one who needed most. Mother I salute
you, I wish I could have said that, when you were alive! Thank you.
Amma.
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net