I experienced grief at a very young age, and to this day it doesn’t seem to go away. Now it feels as though grief has decided to permanently settle in me.
This is the story of Bhawani Khatri. Of her journey through devastating losses, following grief and a hollowing despair.
Bhawani lost her father when she was just 10 years old. At 46, she tragically lost her mother-in-law, her twenty-one-year-old son and her husband within four years of each other.
Her son was killed in a bike accident and after 3 months her mother-in-law passed away. While still recovering from the trauma Bhawani was suddenly struck by the brutal blow of her life, her husband, her only source of strength, passed away.
Suddenly, her whole world collapsed in front of her. She could not make sense of what was going around her. She lost her purpose in life, nothing seemed to make sense anymore. Bhawani went into a deep state of loneliness and despair. She lost track of her life. It was when she joined the single women’s group, a group that was formed to help single women who had lost their husbands, so that she could deal with the loss and suffering she, and other women, had been through. Now, she is a member secretary of this single women’s group.
Bhawani finds solace working in her job at a local-level government office. In her free time, she tends to her farm where she and her now-gone family members used to work together. Bhawani now lives with her younger son and her father-in-law, along with the warm memories of her beloved ones.
Life has stolen everything from me. But it hasn’t been able to rob me of the visceral desire to live
