As Pramod Mahajan was brought home one last time, in a coffin—12 days after he was carried from here, shot by brother Pravin and bleeding profusely—the Mahajan family bravely tried hard not to break down.

But it was the anguish of Pramod’s frail mother Prabhavati (74) as she clung to her eldest son’s coffin with her head resting on it, that crumbled the composure of brother-in-law Gopinath Munde, Pramod’s wife Rekha, daughter Poonam and brother Prakash.

Watching the distraught Prabhavati, they wept inconsolably, embracing each other.

It was on the Friday night before Pramod was shot that Prabhavati had lovingly fed him dinner she had cooked, an evening she could not forget as she was forced to bid farewell.

Running high fever today, Prabhavati refused to eat, or drink tea or a drop of water, though the family urged her to eat so she could take a Crocin tablet.

‘‘Prabhavati had high fever today,’’ BJP leader Jaywantiben Mehta, a close friend of the Mahajans, told The Indian Express. ‘‘She says one can replace a husband or wife but not a son you lose.’’

Mehta says Prabhavati now often recalls the hard days after Pramod lost his father Venkatesh. Pramod would sing a song from Mother India to Prabhavati—mujhe jeena hi padega—I must live on. Today she wonders aloud who will sing this song for her.

‘‘Prabhavati’s taking it very badly. She even fainted once,’’ said a senior BJP leader. ‘‘This is a double blow for her.’’

But one young man in blue jeans and white shirt who stayed stoic through the farewell and consoled others with a hug as they wept—from BJP president Rajnath Singh to Munde, Poonam or Prabhavati—was son Rahul.

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