Losing a loved one...

That was a Unicef ad dialogue I heard most days on YouTube. Now it has touched my life too.

 My dad has left to celebrate New Year in paradise.... He passed away yesterday in hospital sometime after he fainted during his evening walk. 

I just feel it's not fair that he left so soon when he wasn't very ill or bed ridden. He had a few lifestyle ailments including diabetes and had slowed down after a prostate surgery last year. But I expected him to cross 90 and he left 5 years early.

Dad was dad, strict but fiercely loving and helping us bloom in the directions we wanted. He inculcated in us a love for reading, always bringing us books from the college library and while in Dar, the public library of Tanzania.

My only solace is that I spent 2 months last year in their home caring for them. But I grieve I didn't speak to him directly on the phone since mom answered the calls and dad just chipped in from the sides, staying away from video calls.

Grief wells up but doesn't overflow as tears.