An enlightening afternoon

I spent this afternoon with Achan, sitting beside him, trying to smoothen his wrinkled hand, as if caressing and stretching the skin would make the wrinkles vanish altogether. I kept making vain attempts now and then to connect with Achan whose illness had made him so remote to us. He stared at the vacant wall and his expressions changed from time to time, Sometimes it seemed to me that there was a gentle smile playing on his lips, the mild reflection of the smile also seen in his eyes as if he had just seen and recognised someone familiar to him.Sometimes those very same eyes reflected fear ...fear of the unfamiliar stranger .The look of fear then changed to anger. He would start calling out to one of us and then ramble incoherently.
 Once again the same thought recurred to me. Why ? Why does all this have to happen to him ..why these hallucinations ?
Last evening two ladies from our neighbourhood had visited .Among the many things that we spoke about, we also happened to speak about their parents. The plight of their parents were more or less the same as my parents but these ladies being employed could not attend to their parents as they wished to, and had to leave them in the care of a maid or a home nurse for most of the day. Wasn't I fortunate then to be able to attend to my parents in their dotage?
The population of senior citizens is very much on the rise in our state and with the younger generation opting to move out either to pursue their education or in search of a job, the seniors are constrained to take care of
themselves. It's depressing to visit most of the homes in our vilage .Where at one time the houses used to be full of noisy kids of all ages, there are now only one or two aged members combating their ailments without complaining.
I now genuinely feel handicaps that are age related are a blessing. After a certain age your vision becomes weaker reminding you that you are no more getting young. A few more years later your joints begin to creak and ache reminding you to slow down and enjoy the remaining days of your life .Your hearing is no more sharp as it used to be so you can now be selective and strain to hear only what you want to hear. Nights get sleepless and in the dark you look back at the days gone by and feel thankful to God. Sleepless nights bring gratitude. The reflexes get slower and your movements being slow you give yourself more time to pause and appreciate things around you. All this makes easier for one to detach oneself from the world when it's time to leave for the new abode. One by one as each organ fails, the strings that hold you to the mortal world is snapped too... one by one .
Watching achan hallucinate now I think this is a blessing too. How else could he have stayed in bed if he didn't have his hallucinations to keep him occupied?  He travels to places he used to visit  and visualises people who are no more.... all from his bed where his illness has him confined. What would he have done otherwise? How would he have put up with this situation of being bed ridden for probably many more months or years ahead ?
  It is this one string that keeps him tied to us. So let me just be thankful to God that  he is in no pain or despair on this day. I now look forward to be in his company for many more days , to comunicate in silence, to hold his hand ...to just watch him breathe. 

 "One day spent with someone you love can change everything."
— Mitch Albom (For One More Day)