Travel and so much more…… Aai’s Legacy.

It's been some time since I wrote on this blog, and has been difficult to get back to it as well.  I started writing this in May and it is almost the end of August.  Grief comes in stages. There are days when things seem normal and on other days just looking at something triggers a memory and I burst into tears.  I don't think there is anything that prepares one to lose a mother.  Sometimes pain is so unbearable that you cannot fathom how you can possibly endure it and carry on. If we're lucky, somewhere deep down inside of us, we muster an unimaginable strength to pick ourselves up in the most devastating of times. Everyone says," remember the happy days", but somehow every time my thoughts go back to the last few days of her life.  Losing her has left a void in my life which is hard to fill, especially every evening as 6pm approaches I look at the clock with a heavy heart.  This was the time I would Skype with her.  For the last 12 years after my father's demise, this was my routine to call her and talk with her.  She would tell me everything she was planning and doing.  Her travels and adventures in Africa, which was her favourite destination.  She loved to travel and has passed on her legacy to me .  She always said "travel and enjoy people". I miss her enormously every day and hope to continue her legacy of travel as she would not expect anything less from me.  So I have finally picked up my courage to start writing again.

EVERYONE SHE KNEW HAS A FOND STORY TO TELL.

She taught many to cook, sew, embroider, garden and especially to grow orchids.  Her passion for growing orchids was picked up my many.  Magazines and newspapers interviewed her as an expert on Orchid growing.  Besides having her own greenhouse for the Orchids, she would have an open house once a year, where people in the city were allowed to come and view the fantastic blooms that would flourish in her garden. Knitting toys to perfection was another skill she mastered. Many family members and friends have these toys as a memory of her.

As a child, I was taught many of these skills during summer vacation, for which I am eternally grateful. This is what helped me in a sewing business that I ran successfully for 10 years!   Aai was a stickler for perfection.  Whenever anyone showed her a completed piece of sewing, she would look at the back of the item to make sure the finish was perfect.  If something was wrong it had to be undone and redone so as to not make a habit of learning something wrong.  Of course, at the time one would feel its expecting too much.  But I know for a fact, that it's this kind of perfection that has etched a memory in people's mind of how she expected everyone to excel in whatever they did.

ITS THE SIMPLE THINGS THAT HAVE THE BIGGEST IMPACT

My mother was a beautiful woman inside and out who lead by example.  She endured this dreadful disease of cancer, and even on her worst days she was more inspiring than most.  She was a stern when needed, but my best friend at the same time.  She told me that no matter what happens, I have to stand tall. Her legacy lives in me.  There is a lot of responsibility, in being someone's legacy. I live every day so that when I'm gone, my friends and family will look back on my life, just as they do my Aai and say that it was well lived—that I made an impact. I want people to know that no matter the degree of grief or sadness, I strive to see the positive in everything because a life well-loved is a life well lived, no matter the circumstances. ~~~~~~THE PICTURES OF THE ORCHIDS ARE FROM AAI'S GARDEN~~~~~~~