For 53 years, S S Mishra and his wife built a life around the little things. They shared the housework, practised yoga every morning, knew exactly how the other liked breakfast, and found comfort in routines that never felt ordinary.
When she passed away last year, those routines remained. She did not.
But in the middle of grief, Mishra found an unexpected way to keep her memory alive.
“My wife’s art got appreciation after she died,” he says.
His wife loved crochet. She spent hours teaching herself new techniques, often watching tutorials in English and Russian without understanding a word. Somehow, she still managed to recreate even the most intricate patterns. Whenever she wanted a new colour of wool, her husband would set off to find it.
She had created a page to share her work, but it attracted little attention while she was alive. After losing her, Mishra began posting her crochet pieces again.
The response surprised him.
“Sometimes I look at the comments and tell her, ‘They finally see you.’ There are 13-14 thousand likes on her crochet posts now. I think she must be smiling from heaven,” he says.
For Mishra, those messages are more than compliments on beautifully made crochet. They are the recognition he always believed she deserved.
Looking back, it is the everyday moments he misses most.
“We did every household chore together. Every morning, we did yoga side by side. We knew each other’s favourite breakfasts by heart. Some days she made mine; some days I made hers,” he explains.
He still makes the same breakfast.
“Now I still try to make the same breakfast, but it doesn’t taste the same anymore,” he expresses.
His wife stood beside him through every difficult chapter, including a time when he was out of work for months. While money was scarce, she never let his spirits fall, encouraging him until he found another job.
Their home still carries traces of her. The cushion covers she crocheted, the table pieces she carefully made, and the colours she chose all remain where she left them. Every day, Mishra brings home her favourite flowers, a silent ritual that helps him feel she is still part of the life they built together.
For him, love did not end with her passing. It only found another way to stay.
