Dear Atria,
I am in Iran, hence the silence.
Yesterday we went to Tochal and went up the mountain with the TeleCabin. The views were beautiful and when we got to the last stop where the ski pistes are, we could hardly keep our eyes open. Nothing serious, just the glare of light off the white snow was so intense that was difficult to keep the eyes open.
The 7th and last stop is where the Tochal Ski Resorts are, it is over 3700 meters high and the change in pressure can be unbearable for some. In fact, when we got off the attendent warned your baba, Grandfather or "Pedar Jan" as you named him. The TeleCabin operator suggested that he stay no longer than a few minutes.
Well, he didnt know that baba for a while used to go to mountain every week and is not a stranger to high altitude. In fact baba was telling me that he has walked all the way up the mountain to Tochal which was a little further up and is 3,960 meters high.
Surrounded by the snow I saw Baba standing on the top of the mountain, surrounded by snow, with an expression on his face which I thought it to be an indecisive between hapiness and sadness.
He had remembered the time when he came there with you. His face bloomed and tears of happiness was unmissable when he started telling me that when he put his hand in his pocket, he realised that you have been hiding snow in his pocket.
Your Grandfather (Pedar Jan) is 86 years old and your Grandmother (Madar Jan) is fighting against cancer and is not well. There will be regrets in everyone lives, but the ones which we were able to avoid but decided not to, are the hardest to deal with.
I thought you may wish to contact your grandparents, perhaps simply acknowledging their love and devotion to you by sending them your picture.
The decision is yours, be sure not to allow the enviroment and the circumstances influence your decision. Sometimes one has to consult their heart as well as or on occasions instead of their mind in order to make the correct decision.
Once again contact details of your grandparents for you:
Tel: 009821 86034898
Email: shshenassa@gmail.com
Address: Larestan Avenue, Eftekhar Street, Number 19, 4th Floor, Flat 7, Tehran, Iran
Madar Jan is also on Facebook as Mehry Shenassa and on Skype as m_shenassa
You can also contact them via this website in the 'Contact me' section - I will pass your message on to your grandparents.