Grief Of Separation.

I am 15 right now and I live in a nuclear family consisting of my father, mother and a younger brother who is currently 9 years old. The series of events that I am going to describe took place about 7 years ago.

My father has always been very religious and has visited all the famous temples in India at least once. it was the summer of 2013 when my father decided that he wants to visit the famous Kedarnath temple once again, which is a temple of Lord Shiva the God of destruction.

I, my brother and my mother didn't want him to go and also didn't want to go ourselves because my mother just had a very bad gut feeling about it. After a lot of debate, we decided that he shall go to the temple to fulfill his pilgrimage, whereas we will be visiting my grandparents.

The day came when my father dropped us at the bus stand and finally left himself for the airport. That day we reached our destination by 4:00 p.m., he had already reached his about an hour earlier. He was going to visit the temple the next day.

This was the day when Lord Shiva decided to let chaos wreak on Uttrakhand. The largely denounced incident of multiple clouds bursting over Kedarnath happened that day, causing a catastrophe never seen before. There were multiple landslides occurring throughout the area and the waters took the form of a devilish flood ready to destroy anything that comes in its path. It was like Lord shiva's third eye itself has opened and the judgment has arrived against humanity.

No communication could be established as a result of this incident. My mother after listening to the news was sure that her feeling has become the very truth, and my father is no more. For about five days without any news of him, the grief of watching my own mother cry was more than my 8-year-old brain could handle and I went into a temporary state of extreme trauma and depression.

My father who at the time worked as an assistant engineer was my family's only financial support. Without him my family would have been on the road, forced to face the cruel world.

On the sixth day call from my father came telling us that he was safe and now on the way back home. He couldn't communicate with us earlier because he was stuck in his hotel room for about 3 days before the rescue team rescued him.

I cannot exactly describe the feeling which I experienced but in my brain, it is still very fresh, it was as if a heavy boulder that was crushing me since ages had suddenly been lifted. The relief which I experienced was an otherworldly feeling, it was the happiest I would ever be in my life.

Unfortunately, everyone in Kedarnath was not that lucky, many people died that day. I experienced the grief of separation but mine was ended in just three days. There are still people waiting for their loved ones who visited Kedarnath but never returned. I still thank Lord Shiva every day for sparing my father. I want no one to experience that pain of separation, but I also know that unfortunately, death is the ultimate truth of nature.