A Gift for the New Innings

A Gift

While returning from Badrinath, she decided to spend some days with her maternal uncle in Roorkee, absolutely unaware of how this detour was to change her life. I am talking about my 22 years old cousin, Harshita Goyal, who is pursuing her masters. She met with an accident on  November 29th, on her way back to Delhi.

It was a collision between a truck and her car. She was sleeping and doesn’t know about the details. When she opened her eyes, she felt a kind of numbness in her body and she couldn’t move her legs. It was later found that she had incurred cervical bone displacement (C6, C7). Although she has strong sensations in her lower body, there is no force. She is completely bedridden, can’t move, can’t hold anything and has to depend on others for even the light movements. 

I have seen such situations in movies, but I am dealing with something like it for the first time. We are a close-knit big family. I moved to her house the next day of her accident and have been spending time with her 24*7. Watching her unable to move and completely dependable on others, breaks me.

I wonder how and why it happened to us, and even blame 2020 for causing such troubles. We (my family) are hurt but hopeful. We have kept our faith alive that she will be fine soon. She is very strong after all. While we all cried, she didn’t shed one tear. I marvelled at her: how could she not cry? She can’t walk, and there is no fixed duration for her recovery. But, her faith and determination seems much stronger than mine. 

Now let me stop this sob story. Coming to the present, it’s her birthday tomorrow. I have been looking for a gift that  would motivate her, cheer her up. And not surprisingly, I came up with the answer when brushing my teeth this morning. I decided to gift her an annual membership of os.me. She is aware of this kind community. She had volunteered as a photographer in Muscular Dystrophy event that happened in Delhi last year.

When I told her about this membership gift, she was really excited. I have even asked her to write something, her first post, tomorrow on her birthday. She will speak, I will write. It seems that I am more excited than her about the gift, about bringing her here.

Now coming to the learning part, I realised in these past ten days: Future is uncertain, so let’s live in the present.