A Story Of Resilience.
My grandfather during mid 40s was successful in his career and life. He was careless and believed in enjoying his life. But suddenly his life changed when he was hit by an unknown disease, whch gave him cyclic fever every 25 days. He visited many hospitals in various states of India. He went through so many experiments and hit and trials of medicines but it was no help for almost 1 year. He got so many treatments he developed insomnia which used to wake him up in the middle of the night. His usual day involved preparing for a day of boring tests.It was like fear was wrapped around him like a heavy blanket not knowing what will happen next. He worked whenever he could, as he was in a high position in the company but it was very hard for him. He was getting really tired of this unexpected change, which would also sometimes lead to memory loss and losing consciousness for a few hours. It was very scary for the whole family, including my mother who was studying in her law college at that time.
But finally in November 2007, he was diagnosed in a small hospital in South India. In the hospital a new junior doctor found a small gland in the neck. They decided to do a needle biopsy. He was terrified as they removed it but it turned all right. They extracted it and tested it under a microscope. A few weeks later it turned out to be a type of blood cancer called hodgekins. Everyone was scared but at the same time relieved that illness was diagnosed and soon will be cured.
He went for 6 months of chemotherapy which made him weak, dark and bald, he even lost his eyebrows. After his time of chemo he went for his final Pet scan and to everyone’s joy all the cancer cells were eliminated and he was fully cured
After he got cured, his life was as good as it could be. He had a good job and his son and daughter were in good colleges and were studying hard. He loved India alot. The culture and food of India makes it unique to any place on earth. He especially loved golf. He thinks the feeling of hitting the ball with a club well is virtually impossible to recreate. He usually goes every weekend to play in the local range to practice his swing. His family flourished and me and my brother came into his life.
Everytime we visit India he always tells us to be healthy and disciplined. He’s now 66 years old and he still gets up every day at 5 AM to play golf.
My grandfather always says “ life is full of obstacles, you just need to be strong enough to get through them”