CUDDALORE: Five-year-old Shankar* didn’t get to say a final goodbye to his mother. Just like her, he’d been hospitalised for Covid - in the same institute, but isolated from each other. The death came as a shock, but the worst was yet to come.
Within a week, his dad passed away, leaving him with just his grandmother. But the 79-year-old woman herself is unsure how long she’ll be around. “I’m just praying I live long enough to raise him. What will become of him if something happens to me?” Gajalakshmi, who herself recovered from Covid last month, wonders. “No relatives have come forward to help. In fact, some are expecting money. My only wish is that the State government gives Shankar a bright future.”
Shankar was adopted in 2016 by Gnanam (56) and Arulvizhi (42), three years after they got married. “Arulvizhi taught at a government school near Cuddalore, and was visually impaired. Since Gnanam worked for a private company in Madurai, I stayed with Arulvizhi in a rented house at Kattumanarkoil, in Cuddalore district, which is my native place,” Gajalakshmi recounts.
For two years, they hired someone to drop Arulvizhi at school, give her lunch, and bring her back. But since that was difficult, Gnanam quit his job and moved in with his wife and mother to help out. “Once they adopted Shankar, they showered him with love and affection, spending as much time as possible with him,” the 79-year-old says.
But in the first week of May, Arulvizhi fell sick and tested positive for Covid. On May 8, she was admitted to government hospital at Chidambaram, where she died the same night. “Shankar and I were also admitted at the hospital, so we didn’t even get to see her one last time,” a teary-eyed Gajalakshmi explains.
Gnanam performed his wife’s final rites, and a day later, tested positive. Gajalakshmi and Shankar recovered on May 15, and decided to take Gnanam home with them, to be quarantined there. However, on the way, Gnanam fainted and had to be rushed back to hospital. But the doctors there said he was already dead.
The next challenge was burying the body. No relatives stepped forward out of fear of contracting Covid, but thankfully, their house owner’s family and the panchayat stepped in to help Gajalakshmi.
*Name changed