Mum..

I am the luckiest child in this world, this is what Mum used to tell me when I was 5 years old. I don’t actually know my date of birth but my birthday is celebrated on March 15, date on which I was left at the gate of St. Joseph orphanage. Mum took me in and from then on, St. Joseph was my home.

Mum was among one of the caretakers in St. Joseph. She was full of love, ever smiling lady but she very well knew how to handle kids, when to love them and when to be strict with them. Every child used to love her and call her ma’m but the first word which I uttered was “mum”. She was the world for me. When I used to have some fights with other kids, she used to come to rescue me. She used to take me out for walks. I was an adamant kid but she used to try to grant me my every wish. She came with me on the first day of my school. She held my hand when I wrote my first alphabet. She used to teach me my rhymes. She is the whole and sole person behind what I’m today.

I’m working as a nurse in a trust hospital. It’s a big hospital and I don’t really know how many people work here and how many patients come here daily, but life now is very different than what it had been in St. Joseph. I’m independent now and this is what mum always wanted me to achieve. I’m happy with my life but I miss mum and I miss her terribly. Sometimes, I just wonder how beautiful my life would have been if she is with me. When I see some girl with her mom, I feel jealous. I remember my childhood days when she used to be beside me and I could run up to her for any problem, howsoever stupid it be.

She left St. Joseph when I was 13, rather she was fired, not because she was not doing her duty properly but because being genuinely concerned for kids, she strained her relationship with the manager. It was a huge loss for me. I remember I didn’t eat for 2 days. It really hurt me when she left because she was not my caretaker, not my ma’m, she was my mother, my mum. I used to pray to God to send her back but she never came back. After few days, I also realized the fact that she is never going to come back and I have to carry on my studies properly. She always used to say that I need to study hard to be able to stand on my feet. So, I studied, did nurse training and with my efforts, got a decent job also.


It was the usual day at work. I was assisting Dr. Mishra who is a dialysis expert. He was putting an old woman on dialysis. She was very weak and pale but her eyes were showing kindness & love. I felt as if I have seen this woman before. I kept thinking for a minute or two about where I had seen this woman. Then, suddenly it occurred to me that this woman is none other than my ‘mum’. All these years, I had been praying to meet her and now when my prayers are answered, she is bedridden and hospitalized. I was doing my duty but there were so many questions in my mind. Will she recognize me? Who brought her here? Are there any relatives of her?

A teenaged girl and a middle-aged man had brought her to hospital. When I enquired them, I came to know that Asha(the girl’s name) stays with mum and call her ‘amma’.. I didn’t enquire further how is she related to her. Mum was going to stay in hospital for a week. Though I felt very bad to found mum in such bad state but a part of me was happy to found her after all these years.

I went on for rounds to see other patients, but my heart was with ‘mum’..I felt like going to her bed again and again. Finally, when my duty was over, I went to see her. She was talking to Asha that time. She looked at me and smiled. I was hoping that she would recognize me. But I knew that was too much to ask for. How could someone recognize a person whom they have met some 9-10 years ago. I asked her how is she feeling and then we started chatting casually. I asked her where she lived. I could no longer hold myself to not to tell her that I know her from so many years. After all, she was the only person in this world whom I had loved and loved so dearly.

I told her that my name is ‘Riya’ and to my disbelief she started telling that once she knew a girl also named ‘Riya’ in St. Joseph orphanage where she had worked for some good 15 years of her life. I just could not believe that she still remembers me and with tears in my eyes, I told her that I’m the same girl - ‘Riya’. I hugged her and felt so loved and protected in her arms. I had finally found what I had been searching ever since I had stepped out in the real world. I used to look up to every elderly woman, while going in buses, in shops, in markets, in churches, in temples with one hope and prayer that Please God, let me meet my mum once.

I stayed in the hospital that day and anyways, who was waiting for me at home? Asha also stayed. I asked about Asha, whether she is related to mum in any way. It turned out that she was also an orphan before she met mum and now mum is her world too. She was in 9th grade.

Mum’s condition was bad. Both her kidneys had stopped functioning. Dr. Mishra kept her on dialysis for two weeks and he told me that she could only survive after kidney transplant. Kidney transplant operation was something that I knew we could not afford. I thought even if I donate one of my kidneys, the operation and the postoperative care will take around 1.5 lakhs. Thankfully, last year, I had done the medical insurance for myself. But there was one problem in that also, she was not my mother. So, I could not claim for the expenditure of her operation. I discussed this issue with Dr. Mishra. It was he who suggested that mum can adopt me and then I can legally claim for her operation. I was so caught up with tensions that this option didn’t come in my mind. I was thinking of taking personal loan but personal loan interests were high and to meet them with my meager salary would have been tough.

Dr. Mishra is very respectable doctor of our hospital. He is an old charismatic fellow, very loving, sensitive, caring and an expert. It was again Dr. Mishra who sent me to one of his lawyer friend Mr. R.K. Gupta who helped us in preparing adoption papers. Somehow, I was very happy about the adoption idea, because then, mum would legally become my mother. I would really be her daughter..wow :)

With the help of Dr. Mishra and Mr. Gupta, we quickly finished the adoption process and then mum was operated and she became all right within a month with one of my kidney working properly for her. I started living with her and Asha.

It is like dream coming true for me. I have a family now. My life is suddenly filled with hopes and desires, not only for myself but for my mum and my sister also. I pray daily for the well being of my family and one more thing, I don’t feel jealous anymore, when I see a girl with her mother. :)