The Nitya Newsletter | Vol XXXI

In 2021, I got an email from Grace.

It’s been hard time for Grace Nelson

first, she lost her husband William,

still feels him like a phantom limb

and now, her chances are looking slim -

in hospital, with cancer of the blood,

and the onset of Parkinson's,

disasters rain, a flash flood.

The doctors predict

she has just a few months left

But look at Grace -

full of grace,

emailed me, nonetheless.

---

I imagine her in a cold hospital bed

feeling pity for herself,

in a sad hospital dress,

alone and grieving, her body giving in,

this is the sunset of her life,

and she’s been worn thin.

Where are the Nelsons? Didn’t they check in on her?

And what about her friends? Self-centred characters!

But look at Grace -

full of grace,

she emailed me, regardless.

---

She must have sobbed, missing William,

and then let the cry grow

till she was crying not

just for herself anymore,

but for parentless children,

for those with no homes,

for the injustice in this world,

for the diseased and the poor.

That’s when it must have struck her:

there is something she can pass on

and leave her mark on this world

long after she’s gone!

Life has be disheartening -

- these pandemic months, especially so.

I’d heard no good news in a long while

That chance email from Grace

(full of grace)

found me at a strange time.

---

First things first,

Grace introduced herself

gave me a glimpse into her tale,

and then got right down to it.

She didn’t ask for too much, just a small favour

from human to human, she wrote, “After all,

aren’t we all neighbours?"

She needed my help

to execute her last wish

an attempt to make the world

a better place to live in.

Good woman, it couldn’t have been easy

to make that big decision

and follow through with it.

She’s at her darkest, at her lowest

Look at Grace -

so full of grace,

emailed me, nevertheless.

---

So this is the deal:

she gives me her life savings -

- all $5.5 Million of it-

80% is for charity, and the remaining:

for me, a kind human - my commission.

She just needs access to my bank account;

the rupee is at a slump, so am I and my ambition,

converting back, 5.5 is no small amount.

Mrs Grace Nelson has a large heart

she’s a beacon of hope, a light in the dark.

I had no clue who William Nelson was,

but here was this amazing chance -

to be a (paid) part of a greater cause,

oust that inner dissonance.

These days have stretched into months

where nothing has gone as per plan,

so I wondered what Grace looked like,

a scruffy teenager, or a Nigerian man?

Did others reading this email

also work out - for whatever it’s worth -

the math, and the morals, it entailed?

Overly idle, how many of us,

were wishfully thinking at lunch -

about how we’d use the windfall,

had Grace really been full of grace,

or an actual person at all?