In my alternate life, I’m very sure I’m the king that the
Procrasti-Nation remembers as their founding father because that’s the only
thing that can explain away this apathy and gaps in time for my blog posts… I
think it's always better whenever I just decide to write and start typing away…
Anyways…There’s been a lot going on and went on…
Still can’t believe it at times, but sometimes, I randomly
just remember that Pops is gone and I just feel one kind of way for a while.
It's like there’s this very heavy load which someone’s dropped on my chest and I
have to be very conscious and deliberate about taking deep breaths just to
overcome it.
So notwithstanding this fucking Chinese virus still wreaking
havoc everywhere, we had to sit down and deliberately decide to go ahead with
giving Nze the befitting burial that he so rightly deserves.
To be honest, it was a totally overwhelming task.
Right from the first day we all gathered at my place to
discuss how things were going to go, the sheer magnitude of this whole thing
was very evident.
Look, I really really cannot stress the importance of having
an immediate family that is in tune with each other. I have been so blessed to
have the family I do that even through the sadness and grief, we still managed
to sit together, make decisions, reach out to people and deliberate on how we
would want the whole thing to go without any form of issues. God bless us all.
I was put in charge of handling finances for the burial and
now I understand why pops always kept detailed records for everything he always
did. Good thing because at a point, there was always so much to record and
write down and take note and jot down and clarify and provide information on
and calculate and so on and so forth…crazy!.
The date was fixed for July 17th and oh boy..did it
go down or what!
I really can’t get into too much detail about how the whole
thing went but suffice to say, and even though I say so myself, I think we
managed to send Nze Cosmas off very well to the great beyond.
There were so many moments and emotions to remember….sad
ones, grief-filled ones, laughter, drama but the major one that really stuck
with me was:
The sense of how well-loved my Dad was to the whole
community. I mean the love and goodwill were MASSIVE. Everyone wanted to play a
part in the whole thing and even though they couldn’t contribute financially,
the villagers and everyone else involved all made sure they did what they could
to make it a success. (Insert tears here)
Other memories of the burial are really random things that
somehow imprint themselves in my brain and give my minions(been a while I
mentioned them) fodder for thought..in no particular order…:
- · His Traditional chieftaincy chair(or is it throne?) cordoned off with ribbons
- · Standing beside Nda Joe from Dad’s maternal home to mark the spot where the grave would be dug..
- · The village youths all gathering to mount the gigantic banner that we had made for the occasion
- · Sitting with Nnamdi on dad’s insanely firm bed and talking about random things
- · Hearing that strange whirring sound of the drone we used to capture burial footage
- · Drinking Olmeca at the sit out with Oge and the rest of the guys
- · Watching the rainmaker clown get away with extorting everyone because they didn’t want rain to fall (which it eventually did)
- · Seeing Chioma sweeping the compound next door in those her comfy-looking Pyjama trousers (not sure why this stuck!)
- · Repairing dad’s car with Namo and silently wondering who was going to be driving it again..
- · Seeing blood gushing out from the neck of the big Cow we killed for the occasion
- · Buying cartons of drinks for the Umuawuka youths after they finished “cleaning” the compound.
- · Seeing momsy’s clean-shaven head after the whole day had ended
- · Being startled at how one side of the grave caved in overnight after we had dug it the previous day
- · Recalling how annoyed Nda Finian Etoh was because he claimed we didn’t give Club 10 the priority treatment he felt they deserved..”sigh”
One way or the other, there are so many memories I can’t
begin to detail here. I’m just eternally grateful to everyone who played a part
in making sure my beloved dad was laid to rest properly. I cant start
mentioning names or families here but I see you all and may God bless and
replenish you all.
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