MUMBAI: Lata Mangeshkar's nurse recalls the last couple of days of the singing legend's life with much fondness.
"I was with Lata Didi when she breathed her last today," Sarika Devanand Bhise told PTI, remembering the days and nights spent caring for the Nightingale whose voice mesmerized millions in India and abroad over eight decades.
Bhise, who is in her 30s, could not control her emotions as Lata's brother Hridaynath lit her funeral pyre at Shivaji Park.
"Didi always thought of us (staff) before herself. We loved her and miss her," says Bhise, who was with Lata since 2015.
"She recognized us when she was on ventilator. She responded when we made jokes. She was very silent during the last two-three days," Bhise said.
"When she was taken off ventilator, we took her around the hospital on a wheel chair. Then we thought we had won and would take her back home soon. But that was not to be as her condition soon became serious," she said.
Bhise said her biggest regret will be that she won't be able to see the music legend who was responsible for helping her family.
"My family loved her. With her blessings, I opened a nurses' bureau," she added.
"Didi used to narrate how she grew up and took care of her family after her father's demise. She once told me how her mother had shouted at her when she fell down while cycling in Sangli, a town in western Maharashtra," Bhise said.