SHE IS NOW AN ANGEL

She sits at that corner of the house she likes; by Papa’s side. She watches and waits for the next idle person who will take a long trip to Uruabia. But we run and run because the journey to the stream is no joke and no child enjoys working if there is no form of play in it. Her demeanor was like that of a newly crowned queen; Quiet, calm but stern. She was not like Papa. She was quite the opposite, she was ‘Mama’.

 Unlike Papa, she barely shouted, the tone of her voice was not built for it. She was a teacher without a degree. The home was her class and her children were her students.

She warns you to stay off her mango tree but you never knew she was ‘teaching you discipline’. So you steal a mango or two and disappear into thin air before she calls out to you.
She tells you to bend down while sweeping to get all the dirt under the couch but you never knew she was telling you to ‘learn to do things properly’.
She chases you around to go to the stream or help her remove the thorn shells of her dry castor seeds but you never knew she was ‘teaching you not to be lazy’.

‘Run away from men she says’- ‘Her way own way of instilling some morality in her students’ (her children). She loves the Lord; a woman of prayer- So she sits with Papa in the corridor of that small bungalow, north of her big home in Ihite and reads God’s words from that Igbo bible Papa loves so well. She wasn’t flawless; I have seen her fart before. And just like her personality, the smell of her fart is kind to the nostrils of all.

The light in her eyes when her children from far and wide return home with gifts and love. You can tell that she thrives in Peace and shrinks in chaos.

The last time I saw her, I watched her play with my little brother; she behaves a lot like my mother. Oh yes, my mother is her daughter.

At this point, you should know I speak of my Grandmother, Lady Grace Okonkwo.

She was a queen and a teacher but now, she is an ANGEL.

The best last respect to give a person of Peace does not lie in countless goats and cows but in the PEACEFUL celebration of their life and what they stood for.



Uruabia-A popular stream in Ihite, Orumba South, Nigeria.