Rest In Peace Grandma

It has been a while since I last came posted anything; read any blogs or rather even come online. That is because I had taken a week off from my daily routines to see my grandmother in her last moments. She died peacefully on a Sunday night (30 of November).
(Readers please note: this was the period at which most of Tamil Nadu was flooded)
I received a call on Sunday morning from my uncle who was with her at the hospital at Pondicherry, since Sunday morning she had stopped talking and the only thing she could do is just lie and stare at the people around her. Just a day before she was cheerful, and talking and able to sit up and talk. Overnight her health took a plunge.
[1PM]
The doctors declared that her organs are failing one by one and she has only hours left. Her last wishes were to die in her home were her husband died. Uncle booked an ambulance and preparations to bring her back to her house and my native at Sirkali began.
[3PM]
Upon my uncles call I just packed quickly and set off for Sirkali. The only way I could now go to Sirkali is to catch up with the ambulance and my uncle’s car which would be bringing my cousins to Sirkali. Due to heavy floods on the paths to Sirkali buses were not available.
[7pm]
I was on the way to Pondicherry, when met with a problem. The locals in some town just 30 minutes before Pondicherry had blocked to roads in protest for the loss of electricity. The Tamil Nadu government has deliberately shut down the power supply to prevent accidents, due to the flood. The protestors’ demands were that they will not clear the roads if they didn’t receive their power supply.
[7.30 PM]
Still no change in my status. I was really stressed out, and decision was made that my cousins and the ambulance leave without me. Plan B was that another uncle will wait for me to arrive in Pondicherry and we would make our way by bike. The ambulance set off, with my grandmother breathing heavily. Fears were that I would not make it to see her alive again. The memory of her asking me to do her final rituals for her came repeating itself in my mind. My uncle in the ambulance had just set of for Sirkali; it will take him 3 hours at least. I could have caught the ambulance and followed my grandmother in the ambulance if not for the road blockage.
[8.30PM]
I arrived in Pondicherry, immediately me and my uncle speed off in the bike towards Sirkali. As we went pass Chidambaram (a city on the way to Sirkali) we experiences flooded roads. A water level was around knee level. The roads which were not flooded didn’t have proper roads; they were washed off by the flood waters leaving huge potholes on the roads. The roads and the water didn’t matter to us; all that mattered was us making it to our house in Sirkali. Every time the bike went pass a temple, I prayed.
[10.50PM]
I arrived at the house in Sirkali. My grandmother was still alive. But it is the scariest moments of my life. My grandmother was breathing very heavily. The sound of her breath filled the whole house. Her eyes were rolling about, but it didn’t seem like she was there. Her heart was breathing with whatever energy it had. All other bodily functions had shut down.
[11PM]
I held her hand and I prayed that she die with little pain. I held that hand gently in hope that she would feel I was there. Her breath became weaker, and 5 minutes later she let out her last breath, with me by her side.
She had died 15 minutes after I arrived. It seemed as if she was waiting for me to arrive. As tears filled my eyes, I taught, she must have loved me so much. I could have spent more time with her. I spent most of my life in Singapore, and I didn’t bother to make calls to her.
I wrote this post, to off load the burden in my heart.