Ammamma gooooooooooone............

My Mom went back to Kerala today.

She was with me for nearly 3 weeks- the longest she's ever been away from her home after Dad passed away. She came with my nephew and my son has been having a rollicking time these 2-3 weeks. My sis and bil also landed up on Fri and we went to Tirupati on the weekend, by car.

So you see, Sonny boy has been having at least 2 people fussing around him the whole of the last 10 days, if not all of us, as he really is at that very cute stage when everything he says /does is cause for comment and merriment.

And then today morn when he woke up, all of them had vanished.

They left by 6.30; one reason was that since they were driving down they had to leave early, another was that Sonny boy would be sleeping then, and so he could be spared some early morning heartbreak.

But heartbreak is heartbreak and silence is deeper than words, truly.

Sonny boy woke up, found the house unnaturally quiet and bereft of all the people that had filled it the last few days. And he said nothing. No queries, no seeking, nothing. Not a single question about where the 4 people who had surrounded him with love and laughter had disappeared to. He just stuck close by me while I fiddled about in the kitchen. He came quietly to brush his teeth. And went to do potty even before drinking his milk. Finally while doing potty, he called me to the door of the bathroom and asked me to stay there and said- I love Amma, I love Achcha, I love Muniyamma (she's our new maid). Still, significantly, absolutely no mention of his beloved Ammamma, his cousin, his aunt, his uncle..

My heart went out to Sonny boy as I could see that he was so clearly distraught by the fact that all of them had just vanished. But I had to get him to talk about it, for Hubs and I would also have to leave in another hour for work...

So I cautiously started after I had given him his bath-
"Sweetie, Ammamma had to go home..."
Two big eyes looked up at me and slowly started filling up- "where gone Ammamma?"
"Ammamma went to her house because Trinity (our dog at Kerala) is not feeling well, and so Moothamm and Moothach took her with them.."
At that the dam broke,

The tears rolled down his cheeks. Evvybuddy gone... Ammamma gone, Chaith gone, Mooth gone, Car gone, onny Agashya not gone.

And I engulfed my son in my arms as the tears poured copiously down his little face. I was not far from tears myself....