My Lady of the Lantern

My MIL's brother came visiting an hour back. His son is about to be married (one of the two major family weddings scheduled this season) and he was out and about distributing invitation cards to the wedding/reception. He asked my mother for tea. And when she got busy, he assumed his this-is-a-great-thing-I-want-to-tell-you pose and began: "Chuck out everything you have been doing. Go to the Big-City. Go. They have the best doctors." Yes, Okay. Alright. How can I chuck out everything? Who will give me back my five years? [A little history though: This fellow lost his first two sons post-birth, ( born living but died within five days of birth ) and the third one survived with great difficulty, but survived. The factor was that wife was Rh negative, or something like that and it was managed in the third try, which was in the Big-City. But that was in the 1970s!] He loves me and he cares for me. And he did not mean any harm by saying it, but what he suggests has little merit...

I normally despise the gyan that some people give me for free on fertility issues. But there are also times when I hear genuine words. This is not something which was told to me yesterday or the day before. Month after month, I was a fallen wicket. One day I was sharing my frustration with my father and there was one small thing he said. He told me that maybe God was saving me from an even more severe heartache. (We have a neighbour, whose granddaughter was born premature and is special). So, I should count my blessings and never give up on my efforts, but I should never treat my failure as the most 'painful' possibility. In the series of who-needed-you advice, there was one aunty in my building who asked me to have sex on Poornimas (full-moon nights), because it would increase my chances of having a boy child!!! Whoa! Haw! Hum! ^WiseGuy^