Happy reunion at Kaithady Home for the Aged
Kathirgamathamoy Jaffna Special Corr.
The Kaithady Home for the Aged is the last refuge of elders. A
65-year-old man driven away from home, with the benevolence of the Grama
Niladhari of the area, was admitted to Kaithady Home for the Aged a
month ago.
He had none to give him solace except the nursing sisters of the
hostel. The memory of his wife and children never tormented him. One
day, by chance, he strolled along the corridor of the hostel and noticed
an elderly woman crouching on a bed.
He approached the lady and surveyed her from head to foot. A cut mark
on her forehead though obliterated by her shrinking face suddenly
reminded him of his mother whose forehead was cut with a knife in a
squabble with her neighbour.
He inquired her name. She said “Pakkiam”, with tears rolling down his
cheeks, he bellowed “Atchchi, Atchchi I am Eswaran your son and invited
an inquisitive crowd.
He told the hostellers that God had showered mercy on both of them.
He told the onlookers that he had been gifted by god to see his mother
after 20 years. The old lady was dumbfounded and could hardly speak.
He immediately went to the superintedent of the hostel and begged for
two days leave to carry the happy tiding to his kinsmen in Jaffna.
Permission was granted and he rushed to his village to convey the
happy tiding of his reunion with his mother. Pakkiam and Atputhananda
Eswaran had been bound by the inseparable cord of love to live together
for some more years. Eswaran is 65 and Pakkiam is 90.
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