Written by Padmakar Jatar
Rosella and I were married in 1991 & she passed away in 1998.
A few words about her: She was a well qualified Registered E.R. Nurse, well known in Dallas as she headed several Nursing organizations.
She went to India twice with me, the first time in 1991 & we attended 2 weddings: first, Sanket’s Sikh wedding in Delhi, followed by Jaideep & Seema’s Marathi Brahmin style wedding in Pune, which included lunch on banana leaves on the floor! She handled everything very well.
The poverty in India didn’t bother her, at one point wanted to buy a flat in Pune. What is remarkable is that in 1998, as I was leaving for Pune to attend my Aai’s first death anniversary she wanted to accompany me, in spite of being terminally ill. She wanted to die in India, be cremated Hindu style & her ashes spread over Pune! But I refused to take her, felt she should spend her last days with her family.
She was unlike American women, nonmaterialistic, very giving, helping poor people that came to her hospital for treatment & extremely generous. I have never met anyone like her & probably never will. Being an E.R.Nurse you would have thought she would know about colon cancer but didn’t until it was too late.
Padmakar (Papa) Jatar is the son of Dr Shantaram Jatar (known as Babukaka) and Malti Phadnis and the grand-son of Kashinath Shriram Jatar (Bapurao), who was the eldest son of Shriram Jatar, (link to the family tree of Shriram.)
Our Family 