In the eyes of the beholder!!!

For those of you who thought i was going to tell you about that Jefferey Archer short story with the same title,well,you are wrong....But the reason why I chose this title is because I want to convey the same thing here.....
A few days back,I was going through an old album of the 1950s... My eyes chanced to see them as I was cleaning out a shelf and what I saw only made me go on from one photo to the next.There my pati and thatha were!Smiling away as newly wedded!Then my thatha's graduation photo...He was extremely smart and looked very young!Just imagine!He was married in a few months after that day!Then my pati...with her traditional looks...Even the other day one of my patti's cousins visited us and he told me..."You know,your pati was the beauty of srirangam those days..."..Yes, I could see that.Her long hair,charming smile,the traditional nose-stud and earrings...slim even after two kids!!Definitely a beauty....(I'll definitely try to scan the photo and put it up here in my blog).My pati was also an AIR artist and lent her voice for tamil dramas...
That left me thinking...Here she was now-weak,unable to move freely,dependent on others to for her every single move!She can't sleep peacefully because she does not feel comfortable in any position and can't turn on her own!She has difficulty in talking,her fingers close on their own,she can't control them as well...they call this the parkinson disease,a problem with the nervous system...But she is no way less to me from what she was a few years back to what she is now!She remains to be the same dear,pati who I can cuddle up to.Her wrinkles have made her softer and more cuddly, her tooth-less(not completely toothless) smile more baby-like,small face making her cuter by the day,and her uncontrollable fingers holding me when i do anything for her..I can feel the trust she has in me as I hold her.She doesn't trust anybody else as much as she trusts me and appa...Ma,you still remain my sweetheart,...I will always come to you for comfort...
The same holds good for my thattha..It's a year since he passed away,but he is always around me...I can literally feel him...when I go to college,when i study and especially when i sing!!He is there...not at all gone... and will remain with me for the years to come...He will live on in the work i do..I will continuously hear him praise me...However,I wish i could remember my healthy thatha...whenever I think about him, only the thatha of his last days-the frail one who can't see me,who can only imagine how i looked,how i was dressed...but he was there,supporting me throughout....
But,beauty definitely lies in the eyes of the beholder!!!They are still beautiful to my eyes....they grow more beautiful day by day with more no. of wrinkles!:)They get older as my grandparents and they are indeed GRAND-PARENTS!!!!