India Widowed Daughter

[neerathemall]

My name is Diwakaran. I am a 53 year old widower, living near Cochin, in the state of Kerala, in India. I was leading a decent middle class life, until my wife expired last year. This is my real life story. Though I am totally ashamed of myself and my actions, I have only written this, to make other widowers like me, aware of the dangers of loneliness and also the dangers of staying alone with their daughters, during such times of loneliness in life ............

My wife and I have only one daughter. Her name is Anuradha. Since she was our only daughter, we loved her very much. Anuradha too loved us a lot. Like any daughter, I suppose that she even loved me more, as I was her father. We got her married very early in the year 2001, when she was 18 years of age. Anuradha had a happy married life and gave birth to two children, within the next 4 years. Tragedy stuck in the month of January, this year. In a car accident, her husband passed away. My daughter became a widow. She was only 22 years of age. At such a tender age, now she had the responsibility of bringing up 2 little children. My daughter stayed from January 2006 with her in-laws. As they lived in a joint family and as I lived alone, in the month of October this year, they suggested that Anuradha and her children should come and live with me, from Deepawali onwards. At that point, from the time my wife had expired in 2005, I had been living all alone. For two years, there was no woman in my house. I was depressed and frustrated at my loneliness.

So, when my daughter and her children came to live with me, I was over-joyed to have their company. I had a small house - one living room, two bed-rooms, kitchen, and the usual bath-room, with a WC. Since the rooms were small, each bed-room had space for only one bed. Anuradha and her children occupied one bed-room and I slept in the other bed-room. My daughter took charge of all the needs of the house - in terms of cooking, cleaning, washing etc. She kept the house clean and made sure that, I was served coffee, milk, breakfast, lunch and dinner on time. For one month, things were fine. One day, during the 3rd week of November, when I woke up early in the morning, I found Anuradha asleep on a mat in the living room! I woke her up.

I asked her, " Anu, what happened? Why are you sleeping here? Why are you not sleeping on the bed, in your room, with your children? "

She replied, " Oh Papa! There is almost no place on the bed. Your grand-children toss and turn and kick their legs while sleeping. It was so disturbing, that I came here and slept "

I said, " You should have woken me up. I would have come and slept on this mat in the living room and you could have slept on my bed, in my bed-room "

She replied, " No Papa. That is your and my late mummy's bed. I did not wish to be a nuisance "

I said, " Anu, what is this? You are my daughter. Though you have become a mother of two children, yet, you are still my child. So dont talk nonsense. From tonight, let your children use the bed in your bed-room, you sleep on my bed and I shall come and sleep here, in the living room "

She said, " No Papa. I dont want you to sleep on the floor, so let me sleep here. It is no problem for me. You continue sleeping on your bed "

I firmly said, " No Anu, you will sleep on my bed and I will sleep on the floor here. That is final. Now - no arguments "

She said, " OK Papa. But, I dont want you to sleep on the floor. If you insist that I should sleep on your bed, then I have an idea. Look Papa, is it OK with you, if I come and sleep on your bed, along side with you? Afterall I am your daughter and have slept on your bed along side you, so many times, during my child-hood "

I should have thought about the dangers. I should have thought well, before answering. Foolishly, I did not. I simply did not want my own daughter to be disappointed. Afterall she was simply being affectionate. So without any vision, in order not to hurt her,

I replied, " OK Anu, from tonight, after putting your children to sleep in their room, you come and sleep on my bed, beside me! Happy now? "

She replied happily, " Yes Papa. Like old times. I can still recollect all those nights during my child-hood, when I used to sleep next to you and you used to tell me stories! "