How often do you come across love stories which are all about unconditional and selfless love which never dies? Not too often. Love is a difficult emotion to express. It’s nothing like what it is depicted in Bollywood movies. In fact, true love is something that can only be expressed through actions. And here’s one love story that’ll make you choke with emotion.
Mr Maroo lost his wife to Alzheimer’s but his journey, while his wife fought through such a painful illness, is one that needs to be told. Read on…
Mr Maroo and his wife were complete strangers when they got married. They’d never met or spoken to each other. None of them knew what being in love or loving someone really meant. In an interview with Humans Of Bombay, Mr Maroo narrated his simple and heart touching love story in the simplest of words.
“We got to know each other after…we became friends first. We led a simple life — she shouldered the responsibility of the house and supported me in everything. I always listened to her. There was a time when our business wasn’t doing well and we had to move houses — she stood by the family like a rock. We visited Banaras every year and I still remember enjoying a hot cup of tea in the cold mountains of Switzerland with her like it was yesterday.”
Isn’t life about these small little joys and moments that you enjoy with your better half?
About his decades-long marriage, Mr Maroo shares how he lead a life without any grudges. Perhaps, that’s the key to a happy married life.
“It was a marriage without any grudges — we never held onto anything bitter. She passed those values onto our sons, who she raised effortlessly. She was the pillar of our home. Then I retired and we started spending all our time together — it was bliss. This one day, she had to sign on some papers, when she forgot her signature — I took her to the doctor and he told us she had Early-onset Alzheimer’s. She was 70. My world fell apart, but we had to deal with it.”
Mrs Maroo became weak and even developed a tumour after her surgery.
“There were times when she was afraid of everyone in the room, paranoid that someone might harm her in darkness… including me. It broke my heart to see her like that. In the last 4 years, she forgot who I was…she was suffering every day. I stopped aiming for everything to be ‘okay’ — I just accepted and tried my best to make her happy for how much ever time we had left together.”
It was then, that time when Mr Maroo realised just how much he loves his wife. He wasn’t afraid, not even of death. In his own words, he narrates:
“In that time, I realised that I loved her so much that even death didn’t make me afraid. I just didn’t want to see her suffer. As she slept on the bed, I used to sleep on the couch nearby, in case she needed anything. I took her for walks, to temples — anything to make her feel normal. Maybe that’s love — selfless service. On 31st July, we had our last cup of tea together at 5 in the morning and then she passed away peacefully. In these last 12 years, I’ve never left her alone for more than 30 minutes, and now I’m learning to live without her. But that’s what love is, even in death — it grows stronger; even in death it is selfless — because even though I can’t live without her, I’m happy she finally stopped suffering.”
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