The Voice (aka ‘Da Voice’)

Source of photo: Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Research and Institute Centre

My father was diagnosed with throat cancer when he was in his mid-fifties – younger than I am now. While he was very proud that he had managed – two years before he got the cancer – to beat a life-long smoking habit, he had unfortunately not stopped soon enough. I had been on his back to stop smoking for many years. When I was around 12 years old, I rushed home from school one day to tell him that ‘all the kids at school’ swore by a stop-smoking trick called ‘eating’ cold turkey. It seemed so easy to me; we ate a lot of turkey so he had effortless access to an easy cure (Dad was kind enough not to laugh but I do recall that he was biting down – hard – on the insides of his cheeks in his effort to remain serious).

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Ode to my Father

Mom, Dad, my little sister on top, and me – the constant worrier – below,
not trusting that Dad had her protected, too…

My Dad and Mom were, respectively, just 22 and 23 when I was born. They had not planned on my arriving quite so soon: while they were respectably married when I made my tiny appearance, I was nonetheless way too early to be anything but a shock to them. Dad was attending university at the time, and Mom was working as a clerk at a local department store, to help make ends meet. Dad was spending way too much time out with his drinking buddies and Mom was spending way too much time at home alone with her growing belly. Nonetheless, when Mom started bleeding mid-pregnancy, they both held one another and wept, already enamoured with the little lump that was growing in my mother’s womb. Ever after, they would lovingly call me their ‘little whoops’ and cry as they told me how devastated they were when they thought they were going to lose me. My timing may have left something to be desired but I always knew I was very much wanted all the same.