At times when I look at mum, I am sadly and so terribly reminded of those horrible images of prisoners at concentration camps. Yes, it is a tasteless comparison to make. Of course, mum's ordeal is not the same, and I am not trying to trivialise the immense pain and suffering of so many throughout history. What haunts me is seeing just how thin she has become. And somehow, when you become so thin and malnourished, your cheek bones become all the more prominent, and the teeth tend to protrude out more.
She's become so very thin now, it is heartbreaking (and I myself am not faring much better nowadays...). I cannot really describe that look, that saddening, sordid look... I see it when mum is walking, or straining to walk. Her mouth is a little open, her teeth are revealed. Her eyes look so tired, and yet are perhaps the brightest sign of life of all her facial features. It is the look of someone in pain... the look of someone who has not properly eaten for a long, long time...
Can a pat on the back, or the gentle stroke of mum's arm erase the memory of that look on mum's face?
Can my arm around mum's thin shoulders, or the way I try to massage her sore, sore arms take away her hunger from not having eaten properly...?
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