Aunt 2 & Match Made Love

My mom's sister or my aunt came to visit for Deepavali yesterday. She spent a whole day at my mom's home and it was a wonderful time for her to tell me old stories of her life and her history.

By way of background this Aunt 2 is the 2nd sister out of 3 gals that my grandma had. So I refer to her as Aunty 2. She is 72 years old today and is an avid gardener. She talked about how she was married off at a really young age to my uncle. She did not get to choose her mate. She told me how she cried when after her marriage her husband forbid her from going to school. She was only 17 then and she felt really cheated in losing out of her education. But she knew that she wanted to have a happy marriage and please her husband so she learnt to compromise. This said that this is the key to a good marriage - patience and compromise in the early years of the marriage. This is what is going to build a strong foundation and a sense of commitment. Sage Advice. Her husband died of heart attack a couple of years back and she was devastated. She said for 50 years she had dedicated her life to his welfare and she had fed him and took great care of him. Even now after many years of his passing she shed a few tears when she talked about him. This is love in action.

Today she has channeled her passion into her garden. She has a garden full of Indian medicinal herbs and fruit trees and flowering plants. Ginger, tumeric, chilli, mango, papaya, tulsi and hibiscus now provide her with ingredients for her cooking as well as flowers for her altar. She says that she cannot live without her Gods. Everyday she makes Him a garland of flowers from her garden that she tends to with much devotion and love. Again, love in action.

I feel blessed to have been brought up by such a beautiful family of aunts who provided me with such solid values and lived such noble and dignified lives in the quiet confines of their homes. For those who don't know her she is just a housewife who stood by her husband and raised a family. But for those who are close to her like myself she is quite an inspiration.