Letters to my Mum #21

Dear Mum,

This is no happy letter. It’s signed with sadness, marked with gloom and underlined with questions. Death! That dreadful thing that no one wants to imagine, think about, or talk about, let alone even face. It’s ruthless, inconsiderate, and a respecter of no one.

It didn’t think for a moment, that this girl was beautiful of heart and mind

It didn’t care about how generous, kind and friendly she was

It didn’t consider how bright her future was going to be

How colorful her wedding was going to be

How gorgeous her children would be

And how much difference she was making every day

Radiating light into the hearts and lives of many

Is life a smoldering wick that can be blown off by the wind, any moment? Is life so short, unpredictable and temporary? If life is so fleeting, then what?

Why do we work so hard, fight for it relentlessly, stay up in the night trying to make a ‘brighter tomorrow’? Why all the studying hard, completing the 8.4.4 system, yet all of that can be meaningless in a blink of an eye? All the hard work, job-hunting, saving, having and doing…all of it left behind! Reminds me of the newspaper heading I saw on today’s dailies this morning, ‘Tycoon’s billions stuck in fallen bank’.

“It kills me sometimes, how people die.” ― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

The last memory I have of Mariah is of last year November; Women of Honor was planning a visit to Help Kenya Children Rescue Centre, and we’d called upon members to send their donations. She asked to meet me, because she was not going to make it for the visit- she presented me with lots of clothes which we faithfully took to the children’s home. I wouldn’t forget such kindness, because not everyone rises up to the call for charity. Thinking that she is no more is difficult to comprehend.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol (the place of the dead), where you are going”, Ecclesiastes 9:10, Amplified Bible

In the end, it’s a question of purpose. I’m I attaching reason to every season, or I’m I just letting life happen? I’m I making today the best day of my life, or I’m I living today sparingly waiting for tomorrow? Every day matters; every hour, every minute. Love and live life, today. It’s only one chance, and after that, eternity awaits. It cannot be procrastinated, postponed or delayed. It has no sense of time.

She rests in peace.

Sincere condolences to Mariah’s family and fellow friends,

Ndindafah