Introduction and Personal Background
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Speaker
I grew up confused about my culture and identity and felt out of place most of the time until I found comedy, which forced me to be honest with myself and I realized mostly I'm just an expat brat.
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Welcome to my show.
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I'm Salman Qureshi.
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Hey, welcome to the episode.
Processing Grief Openly
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I got to warn you, this one's going to be a little bit different.
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And the reason is because I'm just a couple of days shy of a month of my dad passing away on the 22nd of April.
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And so this episode, well, I'm just trying to make sense of things.
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And I think this episode is more about for me.
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This episode is more for me than it is for anybody else.
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So if you tune out at this point, I get it.
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But if you want to stick around, let's figure this
Navigating Unique Parental Loss
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Because, man, this is, you know, death isn't something new to me.
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It's something that's happened to people forever, I suppose.
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But I mean, like, it's not like it's the first person in my life that's died.
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And not someone close to you.
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Like, I've lost close people, friends, family.
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But your parents' death.
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that is a whole different thing in the last few years i have been worried about it and it scares me it has scared me it used to keep me up at night sometimes and now and now it's happened right well with my dad at least and it's not easy man like you just go through so many emotions
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The whole thing about it is you kind of study around and you figure out that there are stages of grief and blah, blah, blah, but nothing in your life, no amount of knowledge, no amount of experience makes you go, oh, cool, I got this.
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No one has got this with this thing particularly, all right?
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It's a whole different level of shittiness.
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It's this place where you go in different ways and you learn so much about yourself and family and the world around you.
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Maybe this thing that out of any experience in this life might be one of the most powerful ones that changes you possibly forever.
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I'm just under a month in, so I don't know if that will hold true.
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But I've never felt so different inside than I have after going through this.
Premonitions and Past Losses
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You know, something I haven't shared with everybody as well, but the night before my dad passed away, I had this dream.
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And this dream, I just was of my dad passing away, my dad leaving me.
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And I was really upset, obviously, in the dream, but I woke up.
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almost knowing, like not even almost, like I was sure that that's it.
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And it was weird because it's not the first time that's happened to me in my life.
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It happened with my maternal grandmother just a couple of days before.
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I had the same kind of dream and I woke up with the same sort of self-doubt
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a shortness or like shorty.
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That's the word I'm looking for.
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Like I was just sure.
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It wasn't like a doubt anymore.
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I was like, oh, it's going to happen.
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And when it happened with my grandmother, I didn't tell anyone because how do you have that conversation?
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Hey, I dreamed about grandma passing away.
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What do you think about that?
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And, but I had the same thing with my dad and I woke up with the same shorty, but this time I did share it with Sarah, my spouse, my partner, my wife.
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And again, it was I knew.
Community Support and Its Challenges
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And it's bizarre to tell people that because they think, oh, you must have just had a dream and it's a coincidence.
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But for me, it was just so bizarre because I just kind of knew.
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And that day I got busy.
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I told myself I better call my dad.
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But I had one of those crazy days where I was working from 8 a.m.
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It was shows, it was some training work I do.
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So it was just busy throughout the whole day that by the time I got home, I kind of was like, oh, it's too late, I'll call him.
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And that's the night.
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So this was just a night before that I had the dream.
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And that night when I got home and I was just about to go to bed around 1 or 2 a.m.
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that my sister called.
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And the funny thing is when she called,
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I cut the phone because I was like, I knew, I knew why she was calling.
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And I just was like, if I don't pick up, I did the whole ostrich thing.
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If I don't pick up, it didn't happen.
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I don't need to know.
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And then she called again and I had to pick up and hear the awful news of my dad passing away.
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And she, you know, it was...
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It's been weird since I'm very lucky.
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I have these four other siblings that are just so good and powerful and loving that they helped us pull through and a lot of family and friends.
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God, you know, if it was the worst thing that's ever happened to me.
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I was very lucky to have so many people step up almost to the point where I was like, hold on, man.
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Like, I got enough.
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I don't know how to say it in a nice way.
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Like, I appreciated everything.
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But I spent like a few weeks just responding to people's love and comments and stuff.
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And it means a lot to me.
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And I'd rather have this than not have anyone coming out.
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So there was that.
Funeral Arrangements and Family Dynamics
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But yeah, it happened.
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And then it was funny seeing my siblings go through different things with it, you know, different personalities, different things that are important to different people.
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We did have a little bit of argument and stuff.
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And it was a weird thing to go through as well, where you want to love and care, but you're also fighting over like the...
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Minor details like we created this card to send out I created the thing just to tell people where the funeral prayer is and and and where we're going to do everything and the date and time blah blah blah and I made the mistake of asking my elder brother and Who suggested we ask one of my my mom's brother my uncle?
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for some correction on the address.
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He was like, just check if you've got the address right.
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And I sent it across, and then they were like all these kind of like advice coming through.
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It was like it was a marketing...
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It turned into like a creative marketing project.
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And I was one of those, you know, I always hear about my friends in advertising complaining about this.
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And it was exactly that.
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It was like everybody had an opinion.
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They were like, this color is wrong.
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This picture is wrong.
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Maybe we should add this.
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This should be on this.
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Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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It's, it was, it took us a couple of hours to put together a simple card to send for my dad's funeral.
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And it's, and it's nuts.
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But, you know, it was, I look back at this and it's kind of crazy and funny and weird again.
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Like I said, I think I say weird a lot about this whole situation.
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I'm not through it yet.
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I'm still processing it.
Cherishing Memories and Present Moments
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Maybe in subsequent episodes, I might have different opinions about different things, but right now, this is what happened.
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And then you go through kind of every little thing, you know, with your parents, with your dad especially, I think.
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It kind of just hits hard about how much you haven't done for them.
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You know, everything I could have done for them just happened.
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Hits you in the face.
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It just hits you in the face.
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You're just You're just like god like I had so much time with them and I and I didn't do enough and and it makes you angry and you want to Just not believe he's gone.
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That's the other bit that I'm kind of Feeling right now.
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He's like his presence is still here I'm in Tehran at the moment where my parents were
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My dad was working.
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He was pretty much retired, but they had kept him on for a little bit longer, I think for like another year as a special advisor.
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Very proud of him of what he did in life.
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But yeah, so he was here when it happened, and I've come back with my mom to pack things up.
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And so I was dreading it, and it's very painful as well because, you know, you see your mom is frail, and she's got some stuff going on, and then you've got to, like, pack up his life so quickly because we've got to move.
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And that part hurts.
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You just want to hold on to every little thing of his, you know, even if it was a pen that's like a supermarket ball thing.
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You just kind of go, no, I want to keep it as his, you know, but you can't, you gotta, you gotta make a choice on things.
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And, um, and that's being hard as well, because you just, uh, it's hard.
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At the same time, you know, his presence, I can still feel it in the rooms.
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Like I can tell he was here.
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Today I went to his office where he'd been going back and forth for like 23 years to see the way he drove up to that and where he worked.
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And I thought, I've never seen this stuff.
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If he hadn't passed away right now, I would have never seen this side of him or his life or his experience.
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And that was kind of weird to me as well.
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You know, it was just like, what do I know about the people I love on a day-to-day basis?
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That messes you up a little bit too, you know?
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And this is my dad we're talking about, like your own parent.
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And you're going through this stuff.
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I'm glad I went to the office.
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I'm glad I saw his desk and everything and how much people, his colleagues loved him and they did so much for us.
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At the same time, it's like I didn't know about this side of him.
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Or, well, not so much about his personality, but more about just seeing their stuff, you know, and how they went through every day.
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And it's a long time.
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You know, I think it matters more with my dad's generation because they tended to stick at the same place longer usually.
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We might not have that problem because, well, I don't know where if I'll be ever working for any place longer than 10, 15 years or something.
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I don't know about that, right?
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Or most people won't.
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That happened, and it was surreal seeing everybody in his workplace that I know I've met before, but having to meet them about this is just weird.
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And the part that really, really kind of bugs me, right, is...
Societal Expectations of Grief
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There are two things that bug me.
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One, I hope I remember the second one after I'm done talking about the first one.
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Have I forgotten both?
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The first thing that really bugged me was that people kind of go, oh, stay strong.
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Yeah, just stay strong.
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And I know they mean well.
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And I know where they're coming from.
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And I would have probably said the same thing to loads of other people.
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But it's kind of like... It's kind of this whole culture of going... Just because you've lost someone, you've got to just man up and do it.
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We just got to go, no, no, just grieve.
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You know, just sob and cry.
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Don't be strong about this.
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You can't be strong about this.
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You just got to get through.
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Life will still happen.
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You don't have a choice.
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Life will still keep rolling.
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Like I said, it's been almost a month.
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I don't even know where the time went.
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It's been a month.
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I can't believe it that he's gone that long.
Purpose of Funerals and Father's Legacy
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And you're just kind of like, look, I'm going to have to live through it.
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It's not like I'm sitting somewhere.
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I have to pack this stuff up.
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I have to help my mom.
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I have to check on her.
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She's not well, blah, blah, blah.
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But at the same time, I'm just kind of like, I don't have to be strong through this.
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Screw the whole, I got to be strong.
00:12:57
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But the second thing that really bugged me on a personal level was, it was just, he was retiring, man.
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He was about to go, he was moving out.
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He was moving to Dallas where my eldest brother lives.
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And I was just like, great, this is great.
00:13:12
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He's gonna have time with his grandparents.
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He'll move around.
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so hard his whole life, you know, he was just a super hard worker.
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So I was like, he deserves this.
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He deserves having this nice, quiet time.
00:13:27
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He worked late in his 70s.
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He would have turned 76 on his birthday.
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That was on May 15.
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So he passed away just under a month before that as well.
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I had to live through his birthday as well right now, you know.
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And it kind of gets you a little bit.
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Yeah, I just wish he had retired and had even six months of it, man.
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kind of start bargaining and shit, don't you?
00:13:57
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Is that the stage of grief I'm in?
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People like to talk about all that knowledge as well and the process and blah, blah, blah.
00:14:03
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And I go, yeah, man, I know this stuff.
00:14:06
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It's different living through it.
00:14:10
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And even if you know it, it's not like, well, self-awareness is always good, I suppose.
00:14:18
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That's dealing with that.
00:14:20
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And then the funeral itself, you know, that was interesting because I think it has so many layers.
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I think in general, funerals, the whole thing around burying people and the whole process, whatever culture or religion you are of,
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I think it's more for us than it is for the dead person.
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We like to think it's for the dead person and for their afterlife and make sure it's some religious thing around.
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I don't believe that.
00:14:51
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I think we've created these things for ourselves so that we feel a little better about this whole thing, the whole process, and we think we've done right by them.
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And I think by doing those steps, you kind of focus on something else.
00:15:03
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away from the fact that you've just lost this person.
00:15:07
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And so, yeah, it's just in recent times, I've seen a couple of funerals, unfortunately.
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And I just, I think it's about the people and they're gone.
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The person is gone.
00:15:21
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And we just want to find a way to
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That makes us feel better about it or something.
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And that was crazy because, you know, burying your dad.
00:15:31
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One thing that was nice was this is, again, weird, but he seemed to be smiling.
00:15:36
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It was like I could picture him when I was putting down.
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I went into the grave with my younger brother and we brought him down into it.
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And we got to see him, his face and everything one last time as we laid him into the grave.
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It was interesting because he just looked like he was smiling.
00:15:56
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And like I always picture my dad, he'd come home, he'd love to watch TV.
00:16:00
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He just wanted to lie around, watch TV.
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And he had this like chilled out vibe to him and his facial expression.
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And I caught that.
00:16:09
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I caught that, and I felt lucky about that, and he looked so at peace that I was glad for him.
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I don't know what happens after someone goes, what they're going through, where they are, really.
00:16:26
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But seeing him like that was kind of, I guess, nice to see him in the way I remembered him always to be, at peace and chilled out and smiling because he was a very generous person, man.
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Yeah, so that was quite an interesting thing to happen.
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The other part that was weird was I'd taken my shoes off to go down into the grave.
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When I came back up, I had to take a moment to get myself together, and my younger brother and I were obviously a little shaken.
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And I turned around and people had started putting the sand, burying him in.
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And I realized I couldn't see my shoes.
00:17:03
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I was like, oh, God, I hope I didn't leave my shoes in there.
00:17:06
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It's funny how even in the most traumatic of moments, my brain just tries to find something funny or sees...
Finding Humor in Grief
00:17:16
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I don't know how to describe it.
00:17:18
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I've done a couple of shows in the last month.
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One of them went better than any show I've ever done.
00:17:24
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And that was another weird thing.
00:17:25
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It was like, hey, I'm grieving here, but I made more people laugh harder than I think I've ever done in my life.
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And that was tricky as well.
00:17:34
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So not that I'm wishing this on anybody, but part of life is having to experience this.
00:17:43
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Yeah, there's no prep.
00:17:47
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The only thing you can do better is in the now and in the now is what you have and whatever you have right now, you got to give it a little bit more attention and time, whatever is important to you.
00:17:58
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And at the end of the day, career, blah, blah, is important.
00:18:01
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But there's some people that are just super important, you know, and you got to do what you got to do for them.
00:18:09
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Because one of the other aspects is, the other flip side is my mom, right?
00:18:14
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So now I'm just like, I got to take care of her.
00:18:17
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I don't want to make the same mistake with her that I feel like I've made with both of them.
00:18:22
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So I need to be with her as she's going through this.
00:18:26
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And I'll tell you a little, honestly, a little thing that shook me most was...
00:18:31
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I've seen couples in my family, my uncle and aunt from my mom's side, and one of my dad's brother and his wife as well.
00:18:41
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They both, when one of the spouse went, the other one followed suit very quickly.
00:18:46
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And apparently it's a thing as well that happens sometimes.
00:18:49
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And so one of my biggest fear...
00:18:52
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was of something happening to my mom because she's, you know, she fell ill.
00:18:56
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And I just was like, I can't.
00:19:01
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As long as she can survive a little bit longer, I'd love to have her with me longer.
00:19:06
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You know, it's a crazy way your brain operates after you lose someone.
00:19:10
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It just makes you kind of
00:19:13
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just worried about everything with them especially.
00:19:15
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And I can notice her frail, being frail and weaker.
00:19:20
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And I'm hoping that, you know, she'll still be around with us much longer.
00:19:26
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But who's to say about life and stuff?
00:19:28
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And her conversations right now are tricky.
00:19:32
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She's also been in poor health for a lot of different reasons.
00:19:36
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She's a cancer survivor, but it's still, you know, she's got a bunch of health things that happen to people in their 70s and 80s, man.
00:19:45
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So my head's like spinning about that.
00:19:46
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And I just want to make sure she's settled in before I can even get backed into operating into my own real work situation.
00:19:54
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Yeah, it's just nuts, man.
00:19:57
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And it also kind of just, I feel like a parent's death.
00:20:04
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really alters personality more than anything else.
00:20:08
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Like, you know, it's weird.
00:20:10
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I do trainings for people to try to help them develop and stuff.
00:20:14
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And I kind of go, well, if you had a big trauma, like losing a dad, that might step up your game a little bit.
00:20:21
Speaker
I don't know if, I don't know, I don't mean like step up your game.
00:20:25
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I don't know what that even means.
00:20:26
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I just mean, you just kind of
00:20:30
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Your brain does alter unlike anything else.
00:20:34
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And I think it probably will have an effect on my personality in some ways.
00:20:37
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It doesn't have to be like a bad thing.
00:20:39
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But it definitely is a little different in how you treat the world and your possessions for all I care.
00:20:48
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Yeah, that part is different.
00:20:50
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So that's me processing that.
00:20:57
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and my dad's absence and losing him.
Conclusion and Future Outlook
00:21:04
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And I hope I've depressed you all enough.
00:21:09
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If you listened this far into the episode, I'm not sure why, but thank you.
00:21:17
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And I hope that it's in the midst of this processing for me personally, there's something that you can take away from it as well or recognize if you ever go through something.
00:21:34
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And yeah, you know, because it's tricky for me.
00:21:37
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At some point, I'll probably do some jokes about losing my dad.
00:21:41
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That's the sad reality of my brain, or at least of the situation.
00:21:47
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Not about actually losing your dad, but you know what I mean.
00:21:49
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Of any trauma, you kind of go...
00:21:51
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just kind of go, I got to lighten this up for myself as well.
00:21:54
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And in due time, it probably will happen.
00:21:56
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But this is a bizarre thing about me loving and doing comedy.
00:22:02
Speaker
And I guess that's how I process the world.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, this is tough.
00:22:07
Speaker
So from Tehran, I'll be going to Dallas for a few days to make sure my mom's health recovers enough.
00:22:14
Speaker
She's going to be living with my eldest brother.
00:22:17
Speaker
And it'll be funny because I've been on the road a lot too.
00:22:20
Speaker
So I'll be, I've been in Karachi a couple of times.
00:22:24
Speaker
I'm in Tehran now.
00:22:25
Speaker
I'm going to go to Dallas, come back to Dubai and settle into work.
00:22:30
Speaker
Let's see how Dallas goes.
00:22:32
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episode.
00:22:34
Speaker
I'm going to put an end to this misery right here.
00:22:37
Speaker
And hopefully by my next episode, you'll get a more normal, sane episode back in.
00:22:45
Speaker
Yeah, if you are listening, I got to do this.
00:22:50
Speaker
You got to hit the subscribe button, man.
00:22:52
Speaker
And follow the show.
00:22:55
Speaker
I don't know why I said that.
00:22:57
Speaker
I just like habit.
00:23:00
Speaker
I don't know how else to end this.
00:23:03
Speaker
We'll catch you on the next episode.