Outbreak of Love

My mom and dad flew back from Florida yesterday and my father will be on a 7pm flight to India tonight and will stay through June. Dad will be missing my cousin's wedding in New York at the end of the month. My cousin, who is extremely close to my parents, is upset but trying to keep a brave face. I mentally go through all the events that will need to be rescheduled. The baby's 1st birthday party, the boy's 5th birthday party, J's engagement/graduation party. No big deal, I remind myself. I feel for my aunt back home who is confused. Her mind and body won't cooperate with each other post stroke. My cousin J is hysterical. She has a strained relationship with her sisters. Her husband won't be able to come back from South America in time for the funeral. Her son, a merchant marine, is somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, blissfully unaware of the chaos back home. Hopefully this will bring the 3 sister's closer together.

We had a little prayer service at my parent's house last night. My aunts, uncles, cousins and a few neighbors from the Little Kerala section of the cul-de-sac. By the time my parent's flight landed, my sisters and I had ordered the food, cleaned the house, picked up my dad's tickets, and enlarged an old picture of my uncle to be placed in the make-shift shrine. My dad thanks us and says he's lucky to have such wonderful children. Wow. I take note of the day and time and mentally file that memory away to be replayed on a future day when my dad is less touchy-feely. One of the neighbor Ammachis shows up and I speak to her in my remedial Malayalam. "Aren't you the one with the white husband?" she asks. "Yes Ammachi, he took the baby home to sleep". "Does he understand Malayalam? "No" I respond thinking she's going to chastise me. "Good. A husband doesn't need to know everything a wife says."

I had to go into the city today and took a few pictures while driving. The sky had a strange swirly cloud pattern which I couldn't stop looking at. It's strange how you notice the details of your surroundings when you're going through life altering events like death or a break-up.