Jammu: The Poonch-Rawalkote point at the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto ceasefire line between India and Pakistan, will be opened for citizens from both countries to cross over on Monday.
However for Laj Kaur, this is just another phase in the 58-year-delay to meet her son.
At 93, Laj Kaur is suffering from cancer , but is holding on to life just so she can meet her son again.
Her son, Gurbax Singh, had been separated from his family during the Partition. At that time he was just eight years old.
After looking for him for nearly 40 years, Laj Kaur's family finally managed to trace Gurbax in Bagh, Muzaffarabad.
Gurbax, who by then had changed his name to to Nek Mohamamd, was briefly reunited with his family in New Delhi in 1986.
Even though she never met Gurbax again, Laj Kaur has spent the last 19 years reliving that day through photographs, hoping she will be able to embrace her son again.
"I never gave up hope and now with the border opening, I am keeping my fingers crossed that he will come home to me," says she.
"I wish someone would tell my son that his mother is going to die. If he comes, I will embrace him and hold him close to my heart," she adds.
Despite the hopeful tone, there is worry etched in every line on her wrinkled face, as Gurbax has not contacted her since the quake that rocked Pakistan on October 8.
"He had written four months ago talking about his plans to travel on the Uri-Muzaffarabad bus, but all attempts to contact him after the earthquake have failed," says Kaur's youngest son Inderjeet Singh.
"When we met in 1986, Gurbax told my mother that whenever she misses him, she should just imagine that he is in the army and that one day he will come and see her. But he has not come," he adds.
For the time being, Laj Kaur has pinned her hopes of a reunion with her son on the opening of LoC in Poonch.
Seven Indians and two Pakistan occupied Kashmir residents will be crossing over the LoC on Monday.
Laj Kaur's only hope is that one of them is her son.
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