Of
late this has become our annual routine. We make it a point to
visit one of our colleague's house every
year on her birthday. She is very much
younger to us and if she so wished she could easily come to our house to get
our blessings and wishes. But the choice being ours we make the visit with a happy heart. The
reason was her 96 year old mother.
We called our colleague to tell that
we will at her place giving her the approximate time. But we were delayed due
to an unanticipated visit. " Mam ..
what time you will be here?" her cell phone rang. I explained our
situation and said that we would be there very soon.
"I am not worried mam. I know
you both always keep up the timings which I learnt from you. But mum is the
person who is worried." she laughed.
we wondered ! Such a sharpness of
mind!
As we went in she hugged
affectionately and asked her daughter to get us something to eat and drink. At
this age the lady retains her smiling face. Even though the church is opposite
to her house her legs are not permitting her that much of exercise. But she is
bestowed with a gift of hearing so the prayers reach her house very clearly!
She manages her show very well
without any one's help and the food she eats is the same as she had in her
youth except that the quantity is less now. She retains her reading habit
As we chat along, our colleague said
"Mummy is into a hobby nowadays. She writes the prayer she loved when she
was young and makes several copies every day and asks us to distribute it in
the church and to all our friends. So saying she showed us the copy of the
prayer. We were dumb struck looking at her pearly handwriting both in Tamil and
English!
We expressed our sincere feeling of
gratitude to her which made her happy!
"We tell mum that we would make
photo copies of her written prayer and distribute it but she insists on writing
though it's an effort on her
part."
At that moment I was reminded of
Andal of Thiruppaavai her dedication to the Lord and the love with which she
made the flower garland and wore it and enjoyed the whole process before making
the offering. So too is this lady! She wants to offer to the Lord something of her own, her pearly hand writing
rather than the machine made one! It is her enthusiastic tribute, a
penance for the greater glory!
We shared this view with our
colleague and encouraged mum to go on for many more years.
Before we took leave we asked her if we can have a
copy too. "It is for you both I have written today!" she proclaimed
with her radiant face! As we received the precious gift from her we too became the partners of that gracious penance.
