A Letter To My Mum

Dear mom,

It’s been a while; tomorrow will make it 10 years since that fateful morning. I really miss you, I wish you could see me now, I have really changed. I’m now a lot taller, I now keep a beard which I manage to trim when I can. A lot has changed at home oh, Moe, is now a Doctor, yeah she’s serving at Adamawa, and Onasek is in his second year in Unibend, don’t worry I’m looking after him like you would have asked me to. Kings is also a Doctor and he’s also married with a beautiful child, Maris is also married and has a child, Ben is also married and yes with a beautiful baby girl C.E O is also married with a child, Italo is also married with a child and christo is also married, you should see granny, she cant get enough of her grand children and I know if you were here, you would have been so proud of them. Dad really misses you, most times he try’s to hide it but we all see and pretend we don’t know whats up. You are always a reference point on how a good wife, mother and life partner should be.

I made my junior WAEC though and went on to make my WAEC &NECO though I know if you were around, the result would have been a lot better. I am now in my finals, yeah I know its seems like yesterday when you dropped me off in Jos, and as promised I chose Unibend, sorry Uniben but ended up studying Economics And Statistics and not Electrical Engineering as we earlier agreed, I was not just feeling the whole science thing I know you would have understood. I have been diligent in my studies just like you wanted, I copy my notes and do my assignments, remember the time in pry 5 when you found out I wasn’t copying my notes and after a serious thrashing went around looking for my classmates to get notes for me and ended up copying them for me, I haven’t missed a note since then or the time I was asked to repeat my JSS2 because I didn’t make math’s and you took the next bus to Jos to raise hell, only a mother like you would do that.

The church you used to love singing in has been completed (finally), wish you could see it, it’s fully air conditioned and the choir you used to sing in now has new robes (thank God for that). Nobody has been able to fill the soprano part as everyone still says your voice was the best, your friends in the choir are still there and always have fond tales of you, the choir master is still there, at over 80 he is still faithful to his brand, gulder. Lets see… yes, the children’s Sunday school hall has also been completed and plans have been made to fix interlocking pavement stones in front to further beautify the surroundings. Lets see… yes festac has also undergone some major transformations, from bad to worse asin (ooh.. sorry for that) the roads are worse and light is now so bad that everyone now has a generator !

Im sorry I wasn’t at your burial, I haven’t forgiven myself for not coming home even after you asked me to, I was angry at what now is so irrelevant, I have to live with the fact that I was angry with you till you passed. Im so sorry and hope that when I see you again you would be able to forgive me… just know that I will never forget you, everything you have taught me has not been discarded as I still draw wisdom from conversations we had way back and even recently your diaries, I feel most times when I read them we are communicating, you will always be a part of me as I see you everyday, from your photo in my wallet to the portrait in the houses in Benin and Lagos. I have a lot of questions to ask you like why and how… but I will leave them and a whole lot more for the day we finally meet and are reunited once again. I love and miss you so much and trust me I will pass everything you taught me down to my children who will do the same to theirs… My only prayer is that I can find someone as intelligent, beautiful, caring, special… as you. But like they say, you were truly one in a million.

                                             I LOVE YOU SO MUCH MUM!!

                                                                                                                                             Your loving son

                                                                                                                                              Scarletboy