Gaurav Chopra on losing parents in space of 10 days: ‘When I see their door, it feels someone has stabbed me in the heart’

TV actor Gaurav Chopra has remembered his parents who were battling coronavirus and passed away in the span of 10 days. The actor said that every time he sees their door ‘it feels like someone has stabbed me in the heart’. On August 19, his mother succumbed to the virus, 10 days later, his father, a retired government official, died.

“My mother was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer three-and-a-half years ago. The doctors gave her just four-six months, but the brave lady, who’d been a school principal, defied all the odds and was singing, dancing, travelling and celebrating every festival. Cancer couldn’t beat her, the coronavirus did. For the first time, I saw her undying spirit dented,” the actor told Mumbai Mirror in an interview.

The actor had written a heartbreaking note on Instagram, remembering his father, “My Hero. My idol. My inspiration. .Will I ever manage to be a millionth of a man that he was ? Don’t think so.. The ideal man , the ideal son,the ideal brother, a man who always put family above EVERYTHING else. An ideal father …it took me 25 years to even come to terms with the fact that all fathers are not like him.. That he was special .. I was blessed..and as his son that’s the legacy I have inherited.”

Gaurav also said that his father never came to know of his mother’s death. “My mother died while my father was on the ventilator. So, he didn’t hear the news. Their last conversations were about each other. For the last three-and-a-half years, my father was taking care of my mother and that’s how they left, together. My mother was doing fine till she learnt about dad. The day she stopped speaking to him, her condition deteriorated, day by day,” he said.