Stoic

sto·ic/ˈstō-ik/

Noun:

A person who can endure pain or hardship without showing their feelings or complaining.

Our family lost a very special man this week. Ashish's uncle Dilip past away from a massive heart attack on Monday night. Dilip, or "masa ("uncle" in Gujarati)"was the first of Ashish's uncles that I met, he was married to Ashish's mom's sister (Jynostna-masi or "masi"). I remember the first that I met him, Ashish and I had only been dating for a short period of time and Ashish's mom was unsure of me. She invited everyone over to her house for dinner, kinda like a "meet and greet" if you will. After dinner was over and the plates were cleared, Masa says, very nonchalantly, "she's a fine girl, what's the big deal?" He was the first of the family members to sit down and get to know me and accept me. I will never forget that day.

Devastation isn't even a strong enough word to describe what Masi is feeling right now. We've visited with her several times leading up to the funeral today and each time she remained stoic. She worried about what others were going to eat, where everyone was going to stay, the fact that we'd driven over an hour  to visit with her. The emotion was in her face but it was never expressed in words. She was broken. The man that she loved and had been married to for more than 40 years was gone, just like that, in less than 20 minutes. My heart hurts for her, it hurts for their two grown children, for their two grandchildren that love their grandfather more than anything.

Today I watched the stoic woman break down and I broke down. Please pray for our family. Pray for Ashish's aunt, her children, and grandchildren.