Today is Thursday 10th January, and a lot of things happened. We went to the two Christian cemeteries, we visited the railway station, we saw some more of Bhopal, and we had coffee at Sandeep's home and met his lovely family.
This post though will focus on one event, and finally, there are some new pictures.
Bhopal Railway Station is a significant place for me. When we were travelling down from Lucknow with little Pax and his sister Catherine, Pax was taken ill, and we disembarked at Bhopal station and rushed him to the hospital. After Pax died, we went back to the same station. Catherine, who was almost 2 years old at the time, asked, "where's Pat?" (She couldn't pronounce the "x" in Pax so she called him "Pat".) I remember that question so clearly. I have forgotten so much about those few days, I was in such a state of shock, but that question has always remained with me: Catherine looking up and though she was so small, she understood that someone from our family was missing. So she asked, "where's Pat?" I don't remember exactly what I answered, certainly something about him having gone to heaven to be with Jesus.
And we got on the train and left for Mumbai (Bombay), and that was the last time I saw Bhopal station. The last place I had two children alive (I'm not crying while I'm writing, the more I express it, the more I face it, the easier it gets to survive it), the place where two days later Catherine asked me, "Where's Pat?", that's where we finally went today, 10th January 2013, around 30 years and six months later .
Here's the station platform with a train waiting. Platform 1. We arrived and left from here.
Here's mum with her children. So sad that they are merely pictures, but I carry them in my heart.
This is the entrance to the station. Gives you a feeling of what it looks like. I doubt if it is much different now than what it was then, except for the modern cars.
Bhopal station sign, on the platform. someone has posted a picture of a missing child. I miss my children...
the gentleman on the left of the sign with the straw hat is my wonderful husband Simon.
This is right outside the station, and most likely where we would have taken a taxi, if that's what we took.
This picture to the right is thousands of miles away. It is the platform of Stoke-on-Trent railway station. This is the spot where I last saw Catherine alive. She came for a few days visit. We said goodbye right here, she got on the train and went back to her home. A week later she was deceased. We had no idea that was going to be the last time.
So train stations are very significant places for me. They signify the end of journeys, or perhaps--if I can be hopeful for a minute--they also significant the start of journeys? Journeys into the unknown. Please God help each one of those I love who have taken that final journey to be in a place of peace.
This post though will focus on one event, and finally, there are some new pictures.
Bhopal Railway Station is a significant place for me. When we were travelling down from Lucknow with little Pax and his sister Catherine, Pax was taken ill, and we disembarked at Bhopal station and rushed him to the hospital. After Pax died, we went back to the same station. Catherine, who was almost 2 years old at the time, asked, "where's Pat?" (She couldn't pronounce the "x" in Pax so she called him "Pat".) I remember that question so clearly. I have forgotten so much about those few days, I was in such a state of shock, but that question has always remained with me: Catherine looking up and though she was so small, she understood that someone from our family was missing. So she asked, "where's Pat?" I don't remember exactly what I answered, certainly something about him having gone to heaven to be with Jesus.
And we got on the train and left for Mumbai (Bombay), and that was the last time I saw Bhopal station. The last place I had two children alive (I'm not crying while I'm writing, the more I express it, the more I face it, the easier it gets to survive it), the place where two days later Catherine asked me, "Where's Pat?", that's where we finally went today, 10th January 2013, around 30 years and six months later .
Here's the station platform with a train waiting. Platform 1. We arrived and left from here.
Here's mum with her children. So sad that they are merely pictures, but I carry them in my heart.
This is the autorickshaw stand outside the station. I guess when we got off the train, we went here for a rickshaw, or we might have taken a taxi. I think the taxi is more likely but I simply cannot remember.
This is the entrance to the station. Gives you a feeling of what it looks like. I doubt if it is much different now than what it was then, except for the modern cars.
Bhopal station sign, on the platform. someone has posted a picture of a missing child. I miss my children...
the gentleman on the left of the sign with the straw hat is my wonderful husband Simon.
This is right outside the station, and most likely where we would have taken a taxi, if that's what we took.
So train stations are very significant places for me. They signify the end of journeys, or perhaps--if I can be hopeful for a minute--they also significant the start of journeys? Journeys into the unknown. Please God help each one of those I love who have taken that final journey to be in a place of peace.
I hope and pray your children with my Ruth in a safe place of peace.
ReplyDelete(Still wish they had never left mind)