Savitaben B Trivedi

Savitaben B. Trivedi (95) of Wayne, passed away on Friday, March 27th, 2020. Born in India to Girjashankar Pandya and Diwali Pandya. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have lost our original light. Savita Trivedi passed away gently at home on Friday March 27, surrounded by many of the people she loved, and full-hearted with her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and the many she held along the way. How does one mourn a life so complete? So many terrains marked her journey – the freedom struggle, the many mothers she was to her many children, the trail she blazed to America and the role she played for a new Indian community still finding its feet. The generations she raised, the citizenship she earned in her 80s, the momentum she maintained. Despite her thinning frame, she always remained load-bearing for her family. In Sanskrit, Savita means sun. Like other heavenly bodies, we looked upon her with awe, our first teacher. She is where we found our philosophy, our mythology, our morality – all of it radiated from Ba. Her ancient wisdom was our family’s observable universe. In an optical sense, she’s how we understood time. And yet, hilariously, the worst kept secret of our family is that no one knows Ba’s real birthday. These records were not kept when she was born. We don’t even know the year. January 15 is her oldest son's birthday and so, decades after her arrival, she decided to take his, to make it easy to remember. And how it was remembered. This January, in what’s become a rare family gathering, we came together for what presumably was her 95th year. It turns out the joke was on us. It looks like Ba threw a going away party for herself, and we were all invited. She wanted us to be together, in total, like so many of those early days, one last time. The strength it must have taken for her to be there, when the stairs alone were an Everest for her, just so we could all flicker together again, before this awful virus stole our proximity. And now, in our elegant alienation, we remember Ba across the globe – all of her lessons, her kisses, her crystalline eyes, her round-mouthed laughter, the knowingness of her blessings, the sincerity of her songs – these are the antibodies she’s left us to cure our isolated grief. And now she’s moved on. Life and death scatter family on either side of eternity. Ba has returned to those we’ve said goodbye to. Her light now penetrates across the edges. When a star burns out, its light continues to travel, for eons, educating an infinity of those lucky enough to catch a view. We don’t know Ba’s real birthday, because maybe she didn’t have a set beginning. If that’s the case, maybe she didn’t have a set end either. Her love will continue to beam over us, cascading across countries, across centuries, across generations to come; that life-affirming light. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A private funeral service was held for the immediate family only on Sunday, March 29th, 2020 from 8:00am-9:00am in Funeraria Alvarez, 66 Passaic Ave, Passaic, NJ. A private cremation followed at 9:30am in East Ridgelawn Crematory, 255 Main Avenue, Clifton NJ.