Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - June 2017
A while ago in one of the
articles, I’d mentioned about an advice my boss gave me about life after
marriage. When I shared my apprehensions about getting married, he said, “Jerry,
getting married is nothing! The moment you become a dad or mom; that is what
I’ll call a game changer! Rest everything is pretty simple!”
His advice definitely took
shape when we became parents for the first time. It didn’t stop there. We
hardly knew what we were signing up for when we became parents again! If having
a child was a game changer, having two kids is a whole different game
altogether!
The two little brats, a five
year old boy and a little girl who is yet to turn two, make our home buzzing
with activities that seem to be going on for almost 24/7. There is something or
other happening around us all the time. The house is filled with the noises of
their fights, their cries, their toys and what not. It is a war zone daily out
there and many of the days, my wife and I have reached our heights of patience
and it is indeed a wonder that our sanity still clings to its dear life!
While things were going on
like this, one weekend I was about to have my breakfast. It was corn flakes
that day and our little girl came running to me for her share. As usual I gave
her a spoonful of the cereal. I usually mix my cereal with some healthy nuts
and dry fruits to make it richer. After a few more spoons she stopped asking me
for more. Instead she suddenly appeared to be tired and showed signs of being
sleepy. It looked so strange since she just woke up only a few minutes back
from a very sound sleep. Little did we know that a spine-chilling drama was
about to unfold!
She soon started yawning and
we continued to wonder what’s wrong. A few more minutes went by before we
realized that there could be a portion of nuts or so stuck in her throat. We
tried our basic understanding of how to deal with such situation, but with no
results. The baby started showing signs of weariness.
Soon enough her eyes started
rolling up which definitely is a sign of danger. We tried our best, to check if
she can spit out anything at all that may be stuck in her throat. Finally we
decided that keeping her at home will make things worse and quickly got ready
to drive her down to the nearby hospital. That very moment she started coughing
very badly and it was soon followed by her throwing up what she had including
half a piece of a walnut!
Immediately after this, our
little girl was back in action. All her tiredness and sleepiness seem to have
disappeared into thin air. The yawning and rolling of eyes gave way to non-stop
activities and lighting speed tactics. Having said that, the two minutes when
she was almost near the bridge that connects this world with the other, was a
defining moment for us. It was indeed an eye-opener.
We realized that our house
was unusually quite during those two minutes. The usual hustle and bustle was
suddenly missing. There were no longer cries of happiness, instead was only cursed
with an eerie silence! The running behind the kids was replaced with a frantic
run for saving a precious life. We longed for her to do something mischievous
so that we can see her naughty smile when scolded, instead we only saw a pair
of eyes that was soon losing its brightness. We saw doom coming!
What happened next was something
we strongly believe as the intervention from a super-natural being. The cough
she started having was God send which resulted in her throwing up the piece of
walnut that was stuck deep down in her throat. We were so fortunate to have our
little one back to her normal life soon!
It was a lesson learned, a
very painful one indeed. The incident taught us not to wait for the silence from
our dear ones to realize how important they are. What we many a times perceive
as noise is in fact the sweetest of music from them, provided we learn to train
ourselves to listen to it.
May the good God bless us
with the providence to realize such music in life and appreciate every note of
it!
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