When many women across the country enjoyed the privilege of being honoured by their children on Sunday on the occasion of Mother’s Day, a widow was at the mercy of passersby here after she was ‘abandoned’ by her son and daughters.
An acute diabetic and a victim of elephantiasis, Poorani (61), who had to sweat it out to bring up her son and three daughters after she was widowed at the age of 40, has become a burden and is no more wanted by her children. When her drunken husband spent most of the earnings to consume liquor and died leaving behind three young children, she worked in a marriage hall to bring them up and arranged their marriages.
And when she became immobilised owing to elephantiasis 10 years ago, she was no more wanted by her children. But for the widow pension of about Rs. 1,500 she would have been abandoned by them long back, the woman, a resident of Vaithikuppam in Puducherry, says.
As she did not want to be a burden, she had left her home 10 days ago, looking for spiritual healers at Velankanni in Nagapattinam district before landing at Erwadi Dargah.
For nearly three days she was lying on the roadside, fed by some good Samaritans at the auto-rickshaw stand.
She was being taken care of by her elder daughter at Vaithikuppam, albeit suffering humiliation. She was greatly upset when her granddaughter, having two children, stopped visiting her mother as long as she was there, she says with tears rolling down her cheeks. “I left the house and reached Velankanni seeking solace,” she says. It is almost 10 days now that she left home but her children have not bothered to trace her.
She hopes for cure for both mental and physical agony at the dargah. She was sitting on the roadside stretching her massively swollen left leg and covering the wounded foot with a cloth bag. She is desperate to return home as she has to take insulin. “Please help me to board a bus to Puducherry,” she pleads as passersby move on.
It is almost 10 days now that she left home but her children have not bothered to trace her
