I am blessed to have both a birth family and a chosen family. On behalf of my birth family, I send deep condolences and much love to you, Amma Rukmani, and the family.
When Kalpna and I became friends in college, I did not know that she would be my sister for life. I also gained her parents, inheriting Prakash and Ganesh as brothers along with all the cousins, aunts, uncles, and now niece and nephews.
Appa Bala accepted a collect phone call from me many years ago. Those of you who have been around for a while know how expensive long distance phone calls used to be in the days before the ubiquity of cell phones. It was an international call as my plane, traveling from Morocco to New York, had had to make an emergency landing in the Azores Islands.
Well, I am forever grateful that Appa Bala not only accepted that phone call, but he also contacted my parents to let them know that I was okay.
I don't know how much that call cost, and he never allowed me to pay for it.
You will be missed.
Rest in Peace,
Paulette Thompson