She had been roaming the big world out there looking for SHEROES - She Heroes; ordinary women who had done something extraordinary. Women like you and me who had proven at once that they were capable, fearless, brave and had displayed spunk to make someone’s or their own lives better.
But till then she knew not or had not realized that there was a SHERO her own home. This SHERO was an ordinary woman of extraordinary courage. Having lived a solitary life for 19 years after her husband passed away at a very young age, she had not given up on life; not given up on a purpose. She had not just survived the lonely years but had struggled through the darkness to grow her children to capable adults. She had built friends and nurtured relationships at times sacrificing her own wishes and dreams to help and better their lives. She had looked after her own health, pursued her simple dreams and lived with her head held high.
What had kept her going was her mission - To help to heal others. She had a unique strength. A kind of unique offering. She had informed her friends and relatives that they could rely on her if and when they needed her to attend to the ill and ailing in their families. She would offer to go and attend to them in hospitals as manpower was always short in such situations. Regardless of her own health or mood, she would volunteer to go to the hospital. She hated hospitals as that would remind her of her husband’s last fight in the bleak, antiseptic rooms. But there was something in her that was so overpowering that it would win over her resistance to hospitals and transform into a purpose for others.
The neighbors and family knew they could bank on her in crisis. She would be there in her trademark salwar kameez with a neat shock of white hair, glasses on her nose and a book in her hand, with a bag carrying a small water bottle and a small pack of biscuits. She would show up whatever the weather. She would look after the patient with care and concern as if she would look after her own. And no if you are thinking that she charged any money, you should be ashamed.
There were many families who had received her warm care. There were people who blessed her. She was a wealthy woman with the wealth of love she had amassed from people and strangers. She was an angel, a true SHERO.
My SHERO.
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