The Pandemic Through My Eyes - Death

That unforgettable frightened emotion in my septuagenarian grandfather's eyes

On hearing the chilling sound of the ambulances sirens

He had to go all alone as per the protocols of the pandemic,

Would he come back? Will I see him again?

Questions churned inside, the future seemed erratic.

Days passed, we were just given updates and medical bills

Days became weeks, his health condition was in a see-saw situation

He was doing fine till one day he went on ventilator as oxygen dropped,

With all the prayers and the little we could do. Will we not be able to save him? I thought.

Next day he was shifted to ICU and suddenly the medical expenses too popped.

6 days in the ICU and we get a call from the hospital "Please come for the final formalities"

The mind, numb as if in some kind of a trance, no emotions on our clueless faces

We knew what it meant, with everything lost, we rushed to the hospital to take whatever remained,

In the hospital we ran from pillar to post completing all seemingly endless formalities

Exhausted we reached the morgue "Please clear all bills only then the body will be released" the officer exclaimed.

Death in the family is the most devastating experience, hard to think harder to write

With loss of a loved one and all savings depleted, the family had finally lost the war

We experience the insignificance of everything else, it's a feeling of total surrender,

It will take years of toil and struggle to come back where we were

How can middle class commoners like us survive a pandemic like this I wonder.