Father's Last Words To Me

 My handsome father.

His last words to me: Take care of your mother when she is old.

He also told me that he would not be able to bring me up.

Honestly at the age of 9, the enormity of those words did not sink in. He was sitting in the narrow passage way that led from the living room to the kitchen. I was alone because my siblings were in school.

When finally he drew his last breaths. I was by his bedside. Three very deep breaths that seemed to suck the life out of him with each one. And then he was gone, his eyes open. His mind was lucid to the end. Though fuzzy now, those images remain in my mind.

They say that when a person passes on with his eyes open, it's because they are worried for the people they leave behind.

This must be true (??).

                                                                                                            That's Father when he was still single.