Today I was at the airport to see my friend Naveen Lakkur head back to India. While waiting in line to check in, he was sharing some of his “always interesting” stories. This particular one was not a story but an experience that caught my attention.

It was during a Satsang (for simplicity, consider Satsang as a meeting place to have an intellectual discussion) in India where Naveen was in a group discussing an interesting topic – DEATH. After a couple of people shared their viewpoints about this topic, a middle-aged woman stood up and shocked everyone by saying that she wanted her husband to die before she died. Now, realize that in India or elsewhere, it’s uncommon to wish for a family member to die before they do.

When asked for an explanation, she calmly explained that her husband loves her a lot and she is almost like a part of him. She wouldn’t want her husband to live and suffer the loss if she dies before him. She was willing to suffer and survive the loss of her husband just to save her husband any suffering.

That, I thought was caring at a whole new level.

Thanks Naveen for sharing this.