Passing on ....Annie Chechi

Annie-echi’s garden was big and no one was allowed in. She was a big lady and no one would have dared cross her and pluck anything from her garden, i.e. all except me. Each time we had projects in grade requiring us to bring flowers to class, I turned to her. She would let me pluck anything I wanted and invariably I always plucked the long red Cat’s tail flowers that were plenty in her garden. That is my earliest memory of her. This big fair beautiful and sweet woman, who gave us, pickled ambazhanga, whose house was like our own when we went each year during the church feast of St. Sebastian, “The Ambu Perunal” at Pudukad. Everyone was welcome in her house, the table was laden with all kinds of food and I always had the feeling that even if some stranger just walked in and sat down at the table no one would have known. The fireworks at her house were the largest in the angady especially when the procession reached her gate. There was always a huge cage of lovebird in her car porch. She had five sons and she was always willing to exchange one them for one of us.
This year during august when I paid her a visit, she gave me cuttings of Euphorbia Splendens and they are doing great on my balcony. When I saw her she was the same, huge beautiful and as loving and last Saturday on the 13th of Dec, she passed away. She had liver cirrhosis and it had been undiagnosed. She is no more and with her one more of threads that bind us to Pudukad breaks.