Live a Little for Yourself Too — The Last Advice of a 90 Year Old Man

I am 90 years old. Every morning I make two cups of tea. One for myself. And one for the empty chair where Shameem used to sit. That second cup goes cold every single day. And every single day, I watch it go cold. Because that cold cup is my punishment — the punishment for every evening I said "not now, later" to a woman who only wanted a little of my time. Shameem asked me for one thing her whole life. Not money. Not a big house. Just a little of my time. Just to sit with her, present, with no thoughts of tomorrow's work or next month's bills. I never gave it to her. There was one Eid she had been planning for months. She made sewaiyan with her own hands. She laid out her new clothes the night before. She wanted one day — just one day — with no work, no bhatti, no excuses. That morning my contractor called with double pay. And I went. When I came home that evening, she was sitting at the door in her new clothes. The sewaiyan had gone cold on the table. Two cups of tea sat beside them — one empty, one full, untouched, because she had waited for me to drink mine first. She said nothing. Just — the food is ready, eat. Her silence was heavier than any words. Shameem had one dream her whole life. To see the ocean. She had never seen it. She used to save coins in a small cloth pouch — a few here, a few there — for that one trip. One morning we were finally ready to go. She had packed food, she had her pouch, her eyes were shining like a child's. Then the contractor's man came. I told her — not this time, next month for sure. She quietly unpacked the food and put the pouch back on the shelf. She said nothing. She just looked out the window toward the road that led to the sea. She never saw it. After she was gone, I took that pouch from the shelf and went to that ocean alone. I sat on the sand for hours. Every wave asked me the same question — where is the one you were supposed to bring here? I saw the ocean. But not through the eyes it was meant for. If there