Lived with knowledge that every goodbye could be the last

The morning of December 8, 2021, began the way most mornings did for Brigadier Lakhbinder Singh Lidder (called Toni by almost everyone) and his wife Geetika Lidder—with tea and a conversation between two people who were "friends first and always had a lot to say to each other," according to a book by Geetika Lidder.

- Vrinda Tulsian

NEW DELHI:

Good news was on the table—a fresh posting, a promotion. They chalked out the move with "hope and gratitude."

Toni left soon after the cups emptied out. He had to accompany General Bipin Rawat, India's first Chief of Defence Staff, for a lecture in the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) in Wellington.

Hours later, Brigadier Lidder, General Rawat and 11 others were killed when the armed forces chopper carrying them plunged into the hills of Coonoor, Tamil Nadu.

"To be a soldier's wife is to live with the knowledge that every goodbye could be the last," Geetika writes in her 207-page tribute to her late husband, a moving reflection on love, loss and survival, I Am A Soldier's Wife