There is nothing that can replace Mom..

Maybe it’s first time that I’m sharing a side of my personal life here on this platform. It’s been almost 8 years I miss wishing ‘Happy Mother's Day’ with love and gifts to my mom.

At a time, when teenagers/youngsters were not allowed to continue studies or their parents perhaps prioritized their marriage before all else, my mother chose education, self-reliance, and financial independence for herself. ?And I am eternally grateful to her for everything she has done to raise us (me and my siblings) as the people we are today, which is the reflection of her virtues.

A mother to 3 daughters, she set a benchmark that each one of us try to achieve every single day, even now. My mother was fiercely passionate about her work and was equally hands-on with things at home. She had a working career spanning over 33 years, and I would wonder in amazement at her skills at a wonderfully balanced life and bringing us up the same way.

Let me cite an instance, which, to be honest, I may not have been very fond of back then, but in retrospect, it all seems a part of such a perfectly pieced together plan. It was about certain rules which no one had the liberty to amend. No matter what streams of education we chose or what time we decided to come back home, I was made responsible to manage to cook either partially or fully one meal in the house. It gave us the necessary life skills and the underlined the meaning of discipline.

There is not a day that goes by when I don’t miss her or am not thankful for her in my life. Mother’s Day especially takes me down the memory lane, largely for two reasons, one coz of her b’day falls just around the Mother’s Day and secondly, coz of the sweet memories of past days. ?There’s an old African proverb, “when an old man dies, a library burns to the ground”. While a lot of stories, anecdotes and experiences will never be narrated the way she said it, I try everyday that she lives on, in how we carry her legacy forward. Whether it is in the relentless efforts I put in at work or through being able to make all my decisions including managing my finances or keeping the charm of happiness constant at home.

April 2012, the day she was diagnosed will be etched forever in my mind, a day of shock and grief. However, rallying around as a family, we immediately started thinking of possibilities for treatment and ultimate cure. Being from the insurance industry, I was always insistent for my family members to own relevant insurance policies. With this diagnosis, we of course already knew about the long journey of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation that could finally hopefully heal her. Being my mother’s daughter, I was undaunted and wanted the best possible treatment for my mother. It is learning by experience, having gone through such stage of life, today, I keep explaining people around me the importance of health insurance.

My parents were independent-minded and were always financially independent, and so they managed a lot of my mom’s hospitalization and treatment costs which were covered under health insurance policy, and she was able to get the best possible treatment at one of the top hospitals in the city. Even in her last few days, she ran a tight ship. She was a fighter and a champion. She fought cancer and she fought hard

A week back, I met a very close friend and figured out that his mother is ill, I was heartbroken to see him so worried about the treatment cost as the health insurance plan may not have adequate sum insured. Just a few months back, I had come across an acquaintance in the building who was faced with a very similar situation. It deeply bothered me and that is when I thought of sharing something extremely personal to me and share here, for whatever it is worth to tell everyone that get the right health insurance for everyone in the family, especially your parents. You owe it to them.?