6 THE WEEK • JULY 21, 2019
PLUSDark Clouds Hover Over.
But destiny had other plans. In August
2012, Lakshmi started losing her appetite
and was getting sicker by the day. On the
insistence of her superiors at work, she
went to see a doctor who sent her for a
blood test. The results were startling.
Lakshmi’s WBC count was significantly
above the normal count. The doctors feared
the worst and conducted a few other tests.
Lakshmi, on the other hand, was completely
oblivious to all this and was busy preparing
for her sister’s wedding. A couple of days
before the ceremony, Lakshmi received a
phone call from the hospital.“They told me that my reports had arrived
and I had to come with someone from my
family to collect it. I was instantly taken
aback and knew something was not right.”But instead of telling her family, Lakshmi
went to the hospital alone.“The doctor was just not willing to tell me
what had happened. It was only after I
told him about the situation back home
that he finally relented and told me I had
Blood Cancer.”“I started avoiding Vishnu as I did not want
to burden him with the responsibility of a
dying person.”“But Vishnu refused to give up on me and
told me, ‘Even if you live for a day, I want to
be with you. I know for a fact that if we are
together, nothing will happen to you, so let’s
get married.”Silver Lining in Sight.
This is when Lakshmi happened to see an
advertisement by a well-known cancer
treatment centre in the newspapers around
the same time and got to consult a cancer
specialist for free. Two days after meeting
Lakshmi and listening to her story, the
doctors decided to waive all her medicine
fees and handed her a letter that
guaranteed her free medication in
Bengaluru. Staying true to his word, Vishnu
married Lakshmi in 2014.“Marrying Vishnu boosted my confidence
even further. I realized that I had got
everything a girl could ask for in her lifetime.”Although love has always been Lakshmi’s
source of strength in the battle against
cancer, it was also singing that kept her
from losing all hope.“When I sing, I forget everything. I only want
to see happy faces before me and try to
give it my best, every single time.”“I decided to take each day as it comes. I
stopped working and stayed at home to
concentrate on my singing career. In life,
you never know what is going to happen."Lakshmi not only lives each day as it
comes, but also helps her family stay
strong. Cancer may have made her world
fall apart, but Lakshmi has picked up the
pieces fast and put her life back together.
Some days she succeeds and some days
she doesn’t but she takes it all on with a
smile. Every time she felt like giving up,
she’s held on a little longer. And that really is
the stuff that heroes are made of.