As I entered the Pink room....

The aura of gloom filled the air.
Large wet tears rolled down cheeks.
It was only grief that resided there,
And their throats were so choked that they could hardly speak.

It isn’t easy; this battle that they’re fighting,
A every day war against malady;
The pain of Creation that hurts at every sighting,
The longing for a requisite- the longing for a remedy.

But long has the realisation dawned on me,
And long has it come by:
This disease is not one from which you can flee,
There is no remedy, now, that even money can buy.

She was in the fourth stage of cancer,
Her relatives an emotional mess.
They knew, they knew, they knew the answer,
But they knew too that it was best.

I could feel their pain and sadness,
And the scar of death on their minds.
They were hanging onto the brink of darkness,
And there were no more holds for them to find.

I stood beside her, suffering, silent,
Her withered hand in mine.
Her relatives were hoping for life- so hellbent,
I wanted more than anything to tell them that it was fine.

I felt too much and nothing at all,
All of it at the same time.
I empathised with her relatives for her fall,
And I felt as if the loss was all mine.

The room was quiet with an occasional sob,
And the monitor’s periodic trill.
Suddenly, the trill continued without a pause,
And her hand lay in mine- withered, silent, and still.

My father is a Surgical Oncologist. He keeps sharing with me his experiences, tells me about what cancer is, how unpredictable life is. He repeatedly tells me, how Life is nothing but a 'limited' time given to us, to make the best possible memories, every single day, with the people we love and know, and to help those who we may not know but need us. So that, the day we are to leave this world, we remember those memories and leave on a happy note, feeling that it was a life well lived. A difference well made. A smile well given. And the ones who remain behind, known and unknown, remember us by those memories and cherish the life we spent together, or cherish the help we gave them; in our absence. The earlier we realize this, the better.