The renowned and beloved Temsüla Ao breathed her last on Sunday, the 9th of October at Eden Hospital, Dimapur. The news of her death reached me through a friend who knew how deeply I revered Temsula not only as a prolific writer that she was but also as a person; a woman who rose above all odds and took her rightful place in society. Although I deeply regret that my wish to meet her someday in person will only remain a wish, I take comfort in knowing that her words will forever remain with me.

Besides her great literary output that earned her the prestigious Padma Shri and Sahitya Akademi award, what really struck me was the responsibility she took upon herself as an ethnographer to preserve the cultural heritage and oral folktales of Nagaland especially the Ao Nagas in the written form in her book “The Ao-Naga Oral Tradition”.

The work that made her demise seem like a personal loss to even a distant admirer like me was her honest and impactful memoir titled “Once Upon a Life: Burnt Curry and Bloody Rags”. For a major part of her life, she encountered and overcame seemingly insurmountable hardships. Temsüla Ao lost her parents at a young age. Her childhood was marked by deprivation, only her “natural instinct to survive” saw her through. She was married off when she was not ready, she became a single, working mother to four children when she was not ready. Temsüla not only earned my deepest respect for becoming a woman of strength and perseverance but also for her brilliant mind; she lit a path for many women like me to follow.

“And above all, I have written this book because I had to tell my story before time claimed it all”... As we mourn the loss of our beloved writer, we recollect the life lesson she has left us behind with through her words; “to extend a helping hand or a kind word when we can do nothing more”.

- Arcee Thangluah is from Jampuii, Tripura and is a teacher in training.