My great grandmother was partially blind. She had some issues with her nerves and her eyesight diminished with age . My great grandfather loved her a lot and had employed a battalion of people to help her with household chores. But she always insisted on washing his white dhoties or traditional Kerala mundu. As she could not see the dhothie would never be spotlessly clean but he did not seem to care. Someone, once told them, having a banana everyday would help her get back her eyesight so he would get her a banana everyday. He would read the newspaper to her and she would listen with a lot of attention. She would constantly ask.. are you there. To which he would reply .. no, I am not here . When I was a little kid he would tell me she can see but just him and we three would laugh at the joke. She died at the age of 85. He lived for 3 more years after that with his daughter. He would always complain that his daughter did not wash his dhothie well. Though, now it was spotlessly clean. He never had a banana after her death and on the day of his death he said .. I have to go .. she wants me to read the newspaper . He died a peacefully that evening . Maybe they are together now . He, in his not so clean dhothie and she, listening to him read the newspaper.
To me they were the most loving couple I have ever seen .
