Memories From The Life Of An Angel - Tribute To Lydia

Lydia Suzanne Thomas, who was the Kerala High Court correspondent of LiveLaw, had passed away on December 27, 2021, succumbing to cancer. Within a short stint of a few months, Lydia left a mark for herself in the field of legal journalism with her quick and crisp reports on complex legal issues.

In the words of MA Rashid, Chief Editor and Founder of LiveLaw "Lydia was brilliant beyond her age. Although new to the field, her reports had the precision and perfection of a seasoned legal correspondent. She would have attained great heights in this field. Though extremely talented, she was down to earth. Due to her affable and kind nature, all of us felt a personal bonding with her. During the last few months, she had to take leave for medical treatment. During that period, she was not in a position to speak much. However, we were in regular contact with her mother to know about the treatment updates. A few weeks before her death, Lydia called me and talked a lot. She talked to my daughters and my mother as well. She was sounding very happy and joyous then. The news of her death came as a shock to all of us.  Her untimely death is more of a personal loss for us".

Advocate PV Dinesh, Co-founder of LiveLaw, shared during the memorial service at Lydia's funeral ceremony that she had a "magnetic personality"  which drew everyone close to her. Referring to the numerous condolence messages pouring across the country from people who have never met Lydia in real life, he said that she could make a connection with several readers nationwide and that she will continue to live through her writings.

Manu Sebastian, Managing Editor of LiveLaw, recollected that Lydia was friendly and witty and was extremely passionate about her work. "It is a great misfortune that I got to know her only for a few months", he said.

This is a tribute piece for Lydia, written by her friend Anita Elizebeth Babu, who knew her from school days and was her friend at NUALS Kochi. Anita has included the recollections about Lydia made by her sister Deborah Thomas and her college friends Christy C Bose, Jagriti Sanghi and Suzann Dinu.

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While sitting down to write a remembrance for Lydia, an overcast sky blended with warm hues of the setting sun, provide me a backdrop. As I type each word out, I struggle to make peace with the image of her sweet smiling face, lips curling at the corner, waiting to crack a joke about my writing her a memoir. Maybe she is shaking her head telling me how amusing a read this is going to be and how I should maybe not make it too emotional…

Be it the raging pandemic and the non-pandemic-ally raging times previously, you'd often find yourself in an endless swirl of communiqués executed with caution, but there is that cohort private to you, that make up the feeling of home cumulatively. The kind of people you could virtually, sit down with in cozy pajamas, holding your knees to your chest, for a warm and easy conversation by a crackling fire. Lydia was one of those people for me. Zero judgment, friendly reminders to live and thrive ever now and then, genuine expressions of joy for every small achievement, constant leg pulling and witty banter.

Lydia (to the left) from her childhood.

Following are excerpts from her sister's narration of the person she was:

"Lydia, now start!", used to be our cousins' refrain at every meal time. They wouldn't begin the meal without Lydia kicking off the conversation at the table with something atrociously hilarious and clever that would never fail to tickle everyone's funny bone - children, parents and grandparents alike.

She loved making people laugh; and with her smart quips and witty observations, she could extract humour even out of the bleakest situations. Even when I used to visit her in the ICU, she would narrate her experiences interspersed with humour - mimicking the ICU staff who would holler across the rooms when taking bedside X-Rays, or their insensitivity in not bothering to talk softly at night, or catching the sleeping patient unawares while drawing blood. Although sharp tongued, she would also be exceptionally kind and polite. Even in her last days when both sides of her face were paralyzed, and she couldn't smile and greet visitors, and when her speech couldn't be as clear as it generally was, she would apologise to the nurses and visitors who came to check in on her - saying, "I'm sorry, but I can't smile."

As a child, she used to jokingly say that when she grows older she would like to be an "eminent personality". And what might that mean, according to her? She wanted to sit in a room, filled with books, immersed in reading and knowledge, and make wise observations about the world around her. We've often had a good laugh about these pipe dreams…

Thankfully, at LiveLaw she found a family, who cared for her, appreciated her, and stood by her through her toughest times and last few months of life on earth.

Apart from writing, she loved music, light and colours. She was an avid bathroom singer, and sang behind locked doors, pacing up and down the room, searching for that perfect voice modulation in sync with the karaoke on her headphones. She loved the violin, but always regretted that she couldn't play it as well as she aspired to, neither was she able to find the time and energy to practice it as much as she liked. Confined to home most of the time, she longed for freedom, and the outdoors, and to find avenues to plunge her free spirit into. Songs of the Alive is one poem that captures this beautifully.

As for light and colours, she gave expression to this both through painting as well as photography. Capturing that perfect shot was something she was always striving for.

The play of light and shadow, and an almost obsessive fascination with old places, streets, and antiquity, were her favourite photography subjects. She also attempted to capture the character of the most ordinary of objects, thus drawing out its vividity, beauty and transforming it into a work of art.

A few of her captures

Her experiments with colour, both digital and on wood, paper or any other material she could find, also captured these subjects of interest. She liked the work of Van Gogh and Leonid Afremov, and one or two of her own paintings draw inspiration from them.

She was a keen observer of people and personalities. She had an enthrallment with people's faces, their expressions, the lines on their visage that spoke volumes of who they were, their circumstances and the paths they traversed. This is one of her writings on Anto, even caricaturing him for her readers - https://jellybeaninthecandystore.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/anto/ . (You can also find her other works here.)

She would spend hours on end devouring doge memes and haiku, also spending considerable time making memes herself, animating her friends' antics, again in the hopes of making them laugh, and recording quips on current events. When the Pegasus scandal hit us, she was up at night in feverish excitement, searching for the "list" of people who had been targeted. "You're not that important Lydia", I told her. I suppose she converted her concern, angst and excitement into this caricature.

She also translated her own passion towards studying and education into helping those less privileged than her study as well. As soon as she started earning she eagerly volunteered to help some families and school students we knew with a laptop, bought a few others phones/ tablets to attend online classes during the pandemic, and also helped some pay off their school fees.

Asterix, Obelix and Tintin were her favourite comic books, she made her home in J. R. R. Tolkein's Middle Earth and C.S. Lewis' Narnia, not to forget the delightful world created by Enid Blyton. She could aptly dub any life scene against one from the movie Sound of Music, a movie which we have both watched more times than is necessary. Like a meme she once shared with me:

"My roommates and I are watching the Sound of Music. How far into this movie is it appropriate to reveal that I can reenact the whole thing frame for frame?"

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My last text message to her dated 16th December, which shall now remain unread, was a screech of "LINDA!! HOOOOWWW AREEE YOU KEEEPINNNGGGGG????", in all its caps lock and exclamation glory. I imagined she would come up with an apology for the delay in response saying she was planning to negotiate a deal with the hospital admin to let her go or was busy "pottering about the house doing kochu-kochu (small-scale) tasks."

We met for the first time briefly, when I was in school. She studied with my older brothers. One day, I was in charge of law and order in my 6th grade classroom over lunch break. Needless to say, while breaking up a fight I got punched in my tummy by mistake. My friend panicked and rushed to call her sister and along with Dia, came her friend, Lydia. I remember holding my tummy, brushing off my hurt-junior-school-class-leader sentiments and looking at Lydia through tears. She was trying hard to hold a smile back while trying to augment Dia's concerned and serious expression. Fast forward a few years, when I got into NUALS, my brothers told me that Lydia would be my senior. The comfort of having someone familiar while entering a whole new world of unfamiliarity. That felt nice.

She describes herself to have "always fled Uni after class, mostly bunked events and celebrations". Yet I remember her not missing any of the celebrations in our last physical year of academics. Much foresight from the little human. One evening in prep for Onam, I remember fondly waving at her – like a proud mother seeing their offspring perform at school drama – as she sat plucking flower petals for the pookalam competition. The last physical day of class we had – March 10, 2020 – featured ethnic day celebrations in our college and she was dressed up in a long dark skirt and a creamy white top. She took pictures of me, off which she would later make memes. That was the last time I saw her in person.

Simply, she had a heart that could feel another's. Empathy was at the very core of her existence. In my fresher year of college, I was trying to figure out local bus commute and routes and chose a mighty evening in the rain after a conference in college for my first-day experiment. I ended up freezing at a bus stop in the night when Lydia's car swooshed past me. I sighed and looked up a fraction of a second later to see her car making its way right back to come to pick me. This was the day I'd met her for the first time in college and it was palpable flowers and butterflies and heart eyes for her. She thinks I have a personality of a golden retriever pup. So in pupper dictum, thereafter, I've religiously bound up to her, wagging tail, each time, with a toothy grin.

If you could pick between options for emotions to feel around her, down in the dumps is just not on the list. She was a walking, cheer bomb – with a whole arsenal of puns and witty remarks for every possible situation under the Sun. As one of her classmates, Christy C Bose, narrates, "She had a unique way of making you laugh with subtle comments on random things that would leave you admiring her observation skills, sarcasm and sense of humor. A five minute chat with Lydia was enough to fuel you up for another boring lecture. Her voice, expressions, mannerisms … everything had a charisma which I can't express through words."

She did exceptionally well in school and college academics. She did this, while battling many physical ailments within her. One semester exam day, she even had to run off the exam hall in pain, symptoms, which would much later be ascribed to the larger weight of the disease she carried.

On her genius, Christy comments how, "No one could match up to her intellect when it (came) to understanding legal concepts. In our second year of college, we had interned at a law firm in Kochi for a short period. Our mentor was so impressed by her analytical skills within the first few days of internship that he advised her to do judicial clerkship after graduation… she did have a bright future ahead..."

Lydia was nothing short of a prodigy and one interaction with her was all it took to prove. She had a special eye for quirky and cool. She also knew exactly who and when to appreciate.

One day a year back, she posted an Instagram shout out for a pasta maker in Kochi and I told her how I liked version food reviewer Lydia. She replied saying she has now become a benevolent ammachi (old lady/mother) and secretly hopes to get discounts in the future but importantly how this person "makes his own pasta at home. So he needs all the publicity he can get. He shouldn't kashtapedal (struggle) in vain. Hence we need to flood him with good reviews. Kochi needs more pasta." Maybe I'll add a note of gratitude here for her genuine contributions to the artisanal pasta making scene in Kochi.

You could also leave it unto her to find gold in the dirt. Possibly drab experiences would fetch attractive new clothing with her narration. Another classmate of hers, Jagriti Sanghi observes how she was "Very kind, talented and full of life. My fondest memory with her is when she and other batchmates visited my home in Hyderabad for Christmas lunch in Dec. 2017. Lydia detailed her internship experience in a fun and jovial manner. After lunch, we all went shopping in the local market and this is one of the memories I'll cherish forever." She compliments "the determination, and grit shown by her when she was undergoing quite a risky surgery. She was taking it in her stride truly."

Indeed, the indomitable spirit that she portrayed while undergoing such immense pain makes me cheerless and cheerful at the same time. Tears would flow out of my eyes as she narrated her experiences at the hospital – laced in humor albeit. It was insane that she was trying to cheer her kith and kin even in the face of such ache, a spirit that only waned very close to her departure.

She never shied away from offering a helping hand to juniors travelling through the crests and waves of law school.

Suzann Dinu, her immediate junior, met her first travelling in the NUALS bus and they soon became friends. Suzann describes thus, "I probably owe a big chunk of my degree to her as I passed most of my exams learning from the books she lent me every semester. Lydia was incredibly kind. She was smart yet humble and I'll especially remember her rolling her eyes every time someone tried to be otherwise. I believe she carried a lot of faith in god and his working, I hope it brings her immense joy and peace when she meets her maker in heaven."

A friend who wishes to stay anonymous notes how "Lydia had been of the most kindest peers one can find in campus.. a rare find, amidst the toxic competitive, ambience at a law school where most peers are unapproachable and self-centred, generally caught up in the rat race. Lydia was an exception, for anyone to approach freely (as she never) dismissed any person, making (them feel) seen and validated. Lydia was very helpful and always cheerful, warming anyone with an unforgettable smile. Lydia led with an invincible soul and left an irreplaceable imprint for a friend to cherish eternally."

As her sister narrates;

"In some ways it's ironic that she had to say goodbye to us during Christmas, a season she loved, and the irony of her pain (and so many others') juxtaposed against the festivities outside. Till the last breath she was full of life, did not lose her humour despite the pain, had the zest to work for truth and justice (we would discuss life, eternity, patents on cancer drugs, the way big pharma dictates healthcare, the absence of concerted efforts toward nutrition for cancer patients & the general lack of allopathy's focus on nutrition & wholesome/holistic treatment, persecution of minorities & freedom of conscience & worship, and the criticality of arts and sciences in social development). In our very first conversations immediately on coming to the hospital ward after 10 days in the ICU, her eyes welling up with tears and voice choking, she said, "imagine what people like Fr. Stan Swamy would have gone through, being old, sick and incarcerated.; imagine a prison."

Sorrowful goodbyes and conclusions apart, Lydia, was a fine old soul who touched every one she met, with her magical and calm aura. She is readjusting to her full angel self now because she surely lived here on Earth like one.