How My Parents Met: "Night at the Opera"
by Melissa Patel
It was a cold, cloudy and windy Friday evening when first my mum met my dad at the opera where they both had come hoping to get away from life. Both my mum and my dad were going through some rough times when they first met which made their love story all the more of a support and escape, into a feeling which made both of them feel complete and at peace, away from the troubles that were otherwise laid down both their paths.
My dad is an Indian who was born and brought up in Omaha while my mum is a New York girl, focused very much on her career and ambitions. On that cold evening in New York City, my mum and dad saw each other and fell in love.
Their love story was like most others, going to the movies, going out for picnics, dinners and what not. Both were settled in New York with fantastic jobs. They were both deeply in love with each other and there was no stone in the path. However, both had burdening family problems. While my mum’s father struggled with cancer which wasn’t ready to get better, my dad faced a death in the family, of his sister’s and the ways in which it changed both his mother and father. Back home where things were dull and grey, both would find strength in the happiness they’d found in New York.
Time flew past like sand slipping from the cracks of our fingers and soon both my mum and dad decided to get married. What would’ve been an easy breeze affair turned into something much more complicated when mum found out that she was pregnant with me which made things tough for both of them since they both had wanted to wait and plan things rather than just jump in not being fully ready.
Young, married and with rising careers and a baby, my mum and dad raised me. I could see how they struggled to cope with their work burdens while trying to spend time with me and how sometimes the stress would get to a level where they would not talk to one another for days on end simply because they never were at home at the same time but still today, after years of marriage, careers, stress and me, they have been the biggest inspirations, my biggest heroes teaching me that sometimes you can have it all with just some will and determination. I am proud of my mother for not abandoning her career and teaching me that one can have both a career and a family and I am proud of my dad for supporting my mother at every step of the way through thick and thin, sun and rain.