The Memory Remains

It was my grandmother's birthday yesterday. When she was alive, my sisters and I would call her and wish her. In the evening or over the weekend, my mother and her siblings will usually throw a small party for her with cake and some nice food. It's been 4 years since she passed away and though I don't like to think about it, I can still remember how I cried at her funeral. I never realized how much I appreciated having her around until she got bed-ridden and was hospitalized for a few months. Watching your grandmother waste away in a hospital bed is one of the most difficult things you have to do. I am actually glad that she passed away because I don't even want to think of the sheer amount of pain she was going through. I don't wish that kind of suffering on anybody.

I still miss her though. I have quite a few memories of her making coffee for me, reading the newspapers, watching the news in Tamil, laughing at some joke, etc. It would have been nice to call her and wish her for her birthday. She would have been 78 years old if she was alive. Strangely that does not sound like old at all - I have friends who have grandmothers living till 90. How come my grandmother did not get that chance? Life's unfair sometimes huh.

So, just to celebrate her birthday, I made a simple butter cake (recipe from here) and shared it with my many nice colleagues at work. The butter cake turned out pretty good, and it only took 20 minutes to put together and 25 minutes to bake.