Ripe bond...

I was a huge part of my Grandpa's life. C.A. by profession , avid reader and an atheist he was the most straightforward person one could ever meet... He had a no nonsense policy and took responsibility of every action of his. He meticulously planned every single day and worked clockwise may it be in professional or personal life... He gave me one huge gift.... a quote....
He used to call me Sonya. "Sonya, always forgive and forget" he said.... He saw me grow, blossom, rise, drown and struggle.... he always knew my highs and lows... he was the one who always believed in me.... he was someone I could have gone to as my sounding board.... but I realised this long after he was gone... my evolution into mature adulthood did not intersect on his time on this earth.
People in my family still say that I was probably the only person he loved the most in his lifetime... The only time he cried in life was when he bid me farewell and send me off as a bride on my marriage day... He had tears in his eyes when I met him last in the hospital and fed him tea with Marie biscuits that evening.... I left for another city the same night, never to see him again...
There are periods in your life where you choose to be so unaware about everything else , that this precious bond slipped off my palms like dry sand long before I could fathom...
Had it been today.... I could have never ever missed having a father figure in life since I d accept him as my Go To man with full awareness....
Nonetheless.... He was past and I am glad I now know how dearly he loved me till his last breath....
The day he died, I was away attending a family function at Nagpur...
I knew he wasn't been keeping well,
I had visited him just the day I left for Nagpur....
My maiden family hadn't told me that Grandpa was hospitalised since they wanted me to concentrate on my newly married in law's house function...
I didn't have even a faint idea about him being in a coma....
Amidst a poem recital evening where I was sitting amongst a crowd of relatives listening to poetry, I felt numb and restless . There were knots in the stomach and extreme upheaval....
I got up and came down in the garden to call back home....
I just asked, he is going isn't he?
The voice on the other end broke into a teary affirmation....
Such was our bond... I was on phone just when the monitor showed his pulse going down sinking into a zero...
I just knew he was going.... and he made sure I knew....
Some things remain special and unanswered in life....
This evening was one such mystery...
Well, this was about another man in my life...
Ajoba...