KARACHI: The sun’s coppery streaks broke through the narrow winding lanes of Mithadar to enter the buildings, including the sprawling and most prominent white one there through the windows. Several pairs of eyes opened slowly and blinked, tiny noses started twitching. Little forms turned around in bed to hide under their sheets and steal some extra moments of sleep before getting ready for school. But the smell of breakfast brought them all out of bed eventually. Outside the shopkeepers pushed up their shutters noisily. It was another new morning at the Edhi Centre in Mithadar.

It was Saturday, just a day before Mother’s Day. ‘Chhoti Mummy’, Sabah Faisal Edhi, took her place on the white wooden bench on the first floor office of their nursing centre. “This is where Mummy used to start her day,” she shared with Dawn her late mother-in-law Bilquis Edhi’s routine, which has now come to become her own daily routine.

“Here she would be greeted by all the Edhi Centre nurses and other staff following which she got busy calling up all the Edhi Centres for updates. This itself would take half a day and finding a little time to kill after, she would be found playing ludo with someone or the other. I also find myself doing the same but I also play carrom with ludo,” smiled Faisal Edhi’s better half of almost 25 years.

“This year on August 14 it will be 25 years since we got married. It’s also Mummy’s birthday along with the independence day of Pakistan. She wanted Faisal and me to tie the knot on her birthday,” she said.

On Mother’s Day, orphans’ new mummy Sabah shares a glimpse of daily life of Bilquis

“I had just done my Matriculation when Mummy first came to see me at my parents’ home. I was not Sabah then. I was Shabana. But she said she would call me Sabah, which became my name although I am still Shabana according to my CNIC,” she smiled. “Now after her passing away, when everyone here started referring to me as ‘Mummy’ instead of the usual ‘Bhabi’, I felt that our Mummy was irreplaceable. So I asked them to call me Chhoti Mummy instead,” she added.

She stopped then for a while to look around. “You know, I still feel that Mummy would walk in from this door or that sharing news, giving orders, joking, making us all laugh. She lives on in our hearts and minds,” she said. A long sigh escaped her then and her gaze stopped at a door labelled ‘Labour Room’.

“All my four children were born here. Mummy wanted them to be born where she had her own children. Saad, my and Faisal Sahab’s first born, was named Abdul Sattar after his grandfather by Mummy but we call him Saad at home. My next born, Rabia Batool, was named after Mummy’s own mother. Rabia is a fourth year medical student. It gave Mummy a great sense of pride to watch her becoming a doctor. Mariam Batool, our third, is named after her maternal aunt. And our youngest Moosa, who studies in class seven, named after her cousin, a doctor, who saved her life after she got a reaction during her angiography,” she said with pride.

Then running off to pick up a crying baby from one of the cradles in their special children’s nursery, she called out to one of her helpers to prepare his milk bottle. The special baby was also named Moosa by Mummy after her grandson. “This is how much we love all the children here. We love them like our own,” she said. “Motherhood is ongoing for us,” she smiled before heading off to check on the children at the Bilquis Edhi School, also located inside the Mithdar Centre.

Sharing a bit about her initial responsibilities at Edhi Centre soon after marriage, she said that she started with helping out with the make-up of brides. “Whenever we were having a wedding for any of our girls, I would do their make-up and help them get ready for their big day. Then Mummy would also take me to the Foundation’s various centres and I got to see first-hand the kind of hard work associated with taking care of others. Of course, Mummy would be hard at work 24/7 and I only watched her. It is something else entirely to be doing all that work myself now. I realise how much effort it requires. But I’m lucky to have so much support from all the staff, my husband, my children and the rest of the family,” she said.

“I hope that with time I will also be able to sharpen my instincts because Mummy was extremely intuitive. She could read faces. That’s how she made decisions about adoptions, about getting the girls married. She used to interview families looking to adopt, she used to interview the young men looking to marry right here from this bench, and she was quite thorough in her scrutiny,” Sabah said suppressing a giggle.

“For adoption she wanted to make sure that the family would take care of the child like their own and ensure all his or her legal rights. Finding a match would be like finding a match for our own family children. Apart from interviewing the individuals, we would also do our own detective work through other sources,” she said.

“On Mummy’s soyem the girls whom we had married off asked me if they were still welcome at the Edhi Centre where they grew up. I told them that this was their marital home, their mayka. The doors of their mayka will always remain open for them. Whenever these girls came to visit, Mummy would not let them return empty-handed. She gave them gifts in the form of money or new unstitched suits. I do the same now. We still have plenty of suits that Mummy had herself bought for them in our cupboards, even after giving away so many on Eid,” she said, while introducing young Faiza, who was also visiting her mayka.

“She is the last girl whom Mummy got married, on March 13 this year,” she shared. The girl, wearing a pretty dress, seemed to be happy spending time amid familiar environs. Her hands were decorated with henna. “We made sure that Eid was the same for all our children this time too. There were the usual new clothes, bangles, henna, etc. Although we were grieving in our hearts, we made sure all the children were happy. When I gave eidi to them this time, I told them that it was from Mummy. They smiled and nodded. Although we will never get over the loss of Mummy, we are all trying to stay strong.

“Now we also have three to four girls who are of marriageable age and are next in line. I will be extra careful when looking at matches for them. There is no replacement for Mummy but I can move forward her legacy by trying my best,” she said.

“You know, just two-and-a-half hours before she passed away, Mummy opened her eyes and asked me to take care of everyone. She also asked me to tell Faisal to take care of himself as she said if he is fine, he will be able to take care of others. To this I said to her that she will also soon be fine and be able to take care of everyone herself but she kept silent,” she shared.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2022