Page 55 - Microsoft Word - My story of Pathyil Kalluvelil as told by Joseph Pathyil

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by one all of them came to America. Alyamma, their mother, visited Philip for the first
time in 1977, and then having obtained her green card, she visited and spent much time
with her children in USA. She was a great help in The United States. Alyamma had an
extraordinary calming effect on her children. She also knew how to treat each of them as
individuals. She wanted to return to Kerala, which she did several times. But her children
wanted her in America. The love that she showed them was reciprocated by them in full
measure.

By 1991 all her children, except two daughters and their families, were in America.
When she met Joseph, her brother in law from Canada, during the July 4th celebrations,
she confided to him that she felt that she had fulfilled her duties on earth, and that she
was ready to meet her Creator and to be with her loving husband. She requested him to
keep an eye on her children. Joseph teased her not to be in a hurry, as she has much more
to do, and in any case, it was time for her to enjoy the fruits of her labour. But she
gravely predicted that her time was near. In August, she spent a few days with her
youngest daughter Philo in New York. There as she was bathing, she must have had a
massive heart attack. (Heart ailment was in the Aronnil family, as almost all her siblings
had suffered or died of heart related problems.) The hot water burned her. She was rushed
to the hospital. All her children kept vigil at her bedside. On August 19, 1991, she
breathed her last. On August 22 she was buried in a plot that her children lovingly
selected in the cemetery in Queens, New York. She is the first of the Kalluvelil clan to be
so interred in North American soil.

Alyamma’s life was full of joys and sorrows. She was a personification of love. She
permeated this love among the members of her family. Never would she allow anyone to
speak ill of her husband or his family. She would accept all- good things and ills - as
God’s blessings. Her children imbibed much of that, and have demonstrated the beauty of
mutual love and care. They have learned the importance of sharing, of not accumulating
wealth at the cost of helping others. Alyamma and her husband continue to bless their
children and relatives from above.

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