When you lose someone, life looks unfair and difficult. And when you lose your life partner, you try to find any possible way to stay connected with them.
Such is the story of Dimple Parmar who lost her husband to cancer a couple of years ago.
Dimple Parmar recently shared her inspiring story with HoB. Rather than being broken by her husband’s cancer, the couple found love and purpose in their struggle.
Recalling how she fell in love with her husband, Dimple shared:
“He was an amazing man. We first met at a conference, and realised that we were in the same college. Initially when we started getting close, he told me everything– he had financial problems and things at home weren’t good. I was the only person he could ‘talk’ to and I was just drawn to him.”
As the couple was falling in love, at the same time life took an ugly turn. While recalling the time when Dimple came to know about her husband’s cancer, she mentioned:
“Around that time he fell really sick, and it got worse every day. One day, he went to the doctor and when he came back, he didn’t utter a word. He just packed his bags and went to his hometown. That evening he called me and said, ‘I have stage 3 cancer’. I was shocked, but that’s also when I realised that I liked him.
Doctors said there was hope so he had to go about his normal life, while still going for chemotherapy. When he came back to college — I was with him 24×7, taking care of his every need. His parents couldn’t come, so he only had me.
Once college got over, he told me he was in love with me and asked me to marry him. How could I say no? I was madly in love with him.”
Rather than imagining their lives together like many newly engaged couples, this couple was gathering strength to fight against the deadly disease. While recalling the heroic fight against cancer, Dimple further added:
“Just a few months after our engagement, the doctor casually asked him to do an MRI — just to check. I was there with him in the room. The cancer had spread. The doctor took a sheet, drew his body, and coloured all the places the cancer had spread to. There were no blank spaces. He had only 6 months to live.
I was devastated. My entire lifetime with him was crammed into 6 months. That was never going to be enough. But I tried my best — we went to a temple, got married. I took him to every doctor, we travelled continents and stayed with strangers — I was desperate to not run out of time.
But nothing could be done. Towards the end it got worse, he couldn’t even look like himself. He was barely conscious. And then that day came…he flatlined, he breathed his last.”
As Dimple lost the love of her life, she wanted to find a new way to lead life. Recalling how she found out the best way to heal herself through helping people, she mentioned:
“I couldn’t go back to living the life I used to without him. I stayed at an ashram for months. And, I decided that the only way I could ‘live’ is if I can help others. So now I actively work with doctors, give talks and help cancer patients everywhere. Everyday I wish I didn’t have to see him die. But maybe we’ll be together again, in another lifetime…and we’ll actually have a forever then.”
As per TBI, over the past year, Dimple has reached out to over 1,000 cancer patients and families across the globe and provided them counseling services.
At I FOR HER, we are in awe of Dimple’s courage as she has dedicated her life to supporting the families struggling with Cancer.
Cancer doesn’t just impact one person, it actually slowly eats up the desires, hope, and spirit of the whole family. As a society, we need to come forward in support of the families struggling with cancer to give them strength and support to fight this battle.
