Saturday, February 8, 2025
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My cousin Lakshmi & her three elder brothers are like our own siblings for me & my elder sister Gitachechi because we all grew up together in our home in Trivandrum and our family house in Thiruvalla , during vacations.
Lakshmi, being the youngest was a stubborn kid and always had her way, especially with my parents. From her childhood days, she loved travelling and my Achan used to take us all for sightseeing, mostly to cold places like Ponmudi, Munnar, Thekkadi etc.Lakshmi was the one who enjoyed these trips thoroughly and she used to identify each tree & plant she sees there! She also used to relish varieties of food, especially various dishes of fish!
Even after settling down in the US, she used to visit India frequently and whenever she comes on holidays, it was with me that she stays the longest, mainly for two reasons-- One as I always had a living in maid, who was ready to make fish curries for her everyday and secondly because I was ready to accompany her on her innumerable shopping sprees!
Her most interesting hobby was definitely shopping sarees & dresses & fancy jewellery and though all of us in the family used to chide her for accumulating many junk things in the house, she was not at all bothered and managed to grab whatever she took a fancy for!
Whenever I visited my daughter, living in Washington DC, Lakshmi insisted that I should go to Staten Island and stay there atleast for 2 weeks ! And that's the time I used to visit my other relatives & friends in & around New York.
On my last visit to US in the summer of 2019, my chechi had accompanied me and so she also got a chance to stay with Lakshmi in Staten Island, when Moni& Lakshmi took us around a lot of places in New York & New Jersey and we had a two day trip to Niagra too, which we thoroughly enjoyed ! We'll always be indebted to both of them for that trip !
The last, we met was on her visit to India in August/Sept. 2023, when she stayed with me for more than a month.Though we all noticed some minor changes in her movements & behaviour,
we attributed her lethargy to mere jetlag. Her usual enthusiasm for shopping & visiting people had not ebbed at all and that was the marker for her normalcy! This time, other than her crazy buying of set munds for herself & her friends there, she had bought some heavyweight spiritual books in Sanskrit. I remember to have chided her for that saying that it won't be practical to carry these heavy books, by flight, all the way to US. But she found some excuse to defend her action and thus silenced me !
Though we continued to be in touch after reaching back too, she had not told me about any serious health issues, other than that she was undergoing some medical investigations, which I presumed to be the routine ones. But after a couple of months, my daughter briefed me about the seriousness of her condition and prepared me to face the worst situation. So within the last few months I was getting weekly reports and finally daily reports and when we were aware of her last physical condition, we were all praying that she attains "Moksha" through "Anaayaasene maranam" and that she attained! Lakshmi's interest in cooking & gardening, her love for good food, dresses & finery, her passion for seeing places & meeting people and altogether her zest for life will be remembered by all who knew her! I often wonder, if she knew that all this is going to end abruptly or was she optimistic about coming back to life !!! May be, she accepted her fate gracefully! But some of those whom she left behind are still struggling to come to terms with her sad demise. I for sure, am still waiting to hear her loudly calling me "Gaachi" and hugging me with a broad smile on her face!
(718) 761-5544 | 
matthewfh@matthewfuneralhome.com | 
2508 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10314
(718) 761-5544
matthewfh@matthewfuneralhome.com