I Found Love the Day I Found You

It was the year 2004 when we first met. We hardly spoke for a few minutes when he said he would like to meet me more often. It was four years since my husband expired. I had a few male friends but they were just the kind of friends who would sometimes drop home with family or we would go out in a group. There was no one whom I would feel like meeting alone even for a cup of coffee. My life was just going to work in the mornings and back home in the evenings to my two kids. I did not want to waste that time going on a date with a guy, which I then felt was a waste of time.

It was the same with Russel. I never made the time to go out and meet him. I also felt I was not the kind of person for him. I thought he was too good for me. And besides, my marriage was not a happy one and I did not want to go through another trauma again. And I had my two kids to think of too. But Russel regularly phoned me. Our conversations would be about everything but love and romance. Through his talks and advices he made me see life differently. In his own way he started bringing out the best in me. I read out a couple of poems I had written some years earlier and he was the one who encouraged me to start writing again. He brought out all my hidden qualities that I did not know about.

He asked me to marry him but I did not agree because I thought I would then loose my children. This friendship went on for more than two years. Without realizing it I changed a lot in those two years. Family and friends found me more loving and friendly. I had come out of the shell in which I was for four years.

On 1st December 2006 he again asked me to marry him saying he could not live without me anymore. I finally said yes to him. We decide to break the news to our kids on Valentines Day and get married in April after my daughter finished her studies and came home from her Boarding School. My inlaws were very happy with the decision I had taken. That Christmas was one of the best I had celebrated. We decided to take the kids out on a weeks holiday that Christmas. It was to a place where Russel had once promised to take me. He seemed to be in a hurry to go for this holiday. Before going on this vacation he prepared all the masalas for a weeks cooking and stored in the fridge. He said there should be no trouble for us after we came back!!!!!!

The holiday was good but Russell did not go around too much. He sat in the car for most of the time. But he made sure that I went around with his kids and mine. He was complaining of gas trouble. On our way back he was very quiet. We had to change two buses and then take a taxi to reach home. In the taxi he closed his eyes and laid his head back. Suddenly he held my hand - something he had not done in front of the kids before. I asked the driver to take us directly to the hospital as I knew that once we reached home he would not go to the doctor. We reached the hospital and I called out to the Security staff to get me some help to take him inside. Two boys came to take him out.....he was still.......just too still. The doctors checked him and declared him dead on arrival. Doctors say he died atleast four hours earlier. But how was that possible....just 1 1/2 hour before he walked out of the bus and walked into the taxi.

The next seven days were hectic...His parents wanted to wind up his business and I was the only one who knew everything about his business and bank accounts. I had to look after his kids till his parents could make some other arrangements. My daughter had to go back to the boarding before school started. But I had no trouble in the cooking....everything was ready in the fridge for me.. I had to just add the masalas he had prepared.....he had made sure I would not have any trouble cooking as he knew I was not too fond of cooking......

I did not cry because I lost him...I was happy that he loved me for three years and taught me to live. I was happy that I got to share the three years of his life with him before he died.

Whatever I am today is because of him. Whenever I have a problem I think of how he would want me to handle the matter. I wake up in the morning and look at his picture at my bedside. I know he is always there with me in everything I do. He has made me a better human being.

Thank you Russel for making my world better.