A Son's predicament.

A few days back, a middle-aged lady got admitted in the neuro-ICU after suffering from an attack of a hypertensive massive CVA. CT-scan revealed Intraventricular bleed with obstructive hydrocephalus with central herniation. She was operated upon and later put on the ventilator. She had minimum spontaneous respiratory effort and no brain-stem reflexes. There was little hope of her coming back to normality. As the ICU resident, I had to talk to her attendants, the patient’s husband and her two sons, who were about 18 and 14 years old, from time to time. Like most cases of CVA, the attack was sudden and it took the family by surprise. I interacted mostly with the elder son who always had tears in his eyes and never failed to tell me how much he loved his mother and wanted her back at all costs. Today, as I was sitting in the doctors’ room, the ward-boy came and told me that a strange thing is happening in the ICU and that I better go and see it myself. I went inside the neuro ICU and saw that the elder son was dressed in a white kurta and dhoti with a gamosa around his neck. Beside him was a young girl dressed in a simple mekhela-chadar. As the son saw me enter, he rushed towards me and told me that he got married today. I was astounded and didn’t know how to react. He then continued that his mother always used to playfully complain the lack of another woman in the house and kept saying that she wanted to find a suitable daughter-in-law, get them married and teach her all the household chores before she died. He added that it was a unanimous decision from all family and relatives that her last wish be fulfilled. The father then asked for a neighbour’s daughter’s hand in marriage for his son and married them off today. He told me that his mother knew the girl and liked her very much and now they had come to seek her blessings. Saying this, he suddenly bent down to touch my feet. I stopped him and embraced him. My eyes were getting moist as I felt his pain, his effort, his surrender...