TRIBUTE TO IMAT ESEZA ONGOL - (TATA)

(A Life Well Lived, A Life Long Lived)

The voices: Oh! She is gone! 

Response: Where to?

The voices: Home!

Agony: A wife, mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, great grandmother, nyaka Ajago (daughter of a Chief)

Oh! what you have been!

You have been here 95 years and still counting…

We shared the same birthday, 9th July, what a pleasure to share this moment with you. 

Never like once have I ever made you a birthday party but I loved you grandma.

Why did you give up this early, grandma?

We had a plan to at least make it a century…

Hahaha, she laughs. 100 years! Impossible, my grandson. I really don't think I can make it to 100 years with this sort of pain all over my body, I feel tired and need rest.

Okay grandma, we’ll pray and ask Him (God) to give you the grace to hold on a bit.

In case He (God) wills, I will make it. She replies.

I heard a voice call from a distance…

Grandma: “Grandson, when will you be coming over to see me? Just know that wherever you are, I really love you so much, get some time and see me…”

“You have been the only person when you visit, you read the Bible for me. Just know that here I love you so much, your sisters have seen me, when is your turn?”

Grandson: Grandma, when  I get time I am coming to see you, it is just a moment, where I am, I am engaged but just know, I will make a date and come because I love you so much as well.

The guilt: Jether, What have you done? What do you think she would have told you for those past three years? This is a trauma and guilt you will have to live with for the rest of your life!

Oh! How I wish I could only see her then she rises up to tell me whatever she wanted to tell me…

How can I reverse all these?

The disbelief that it could just be a dream and not true covers me up that she is gone!

I rush to village that same day and on reaching there, I see an empty bed where she always laid on, her wooden walking stick hanged up, her four legged walking clutches, hidden and all her belongings being washed to be hanged on the string to dry, later that evening, mum (aunt Milly) packs grandma’s belongings to her suitcase forever not to be worn again.

Mum (aunt Milly), “what are you doing?” I ask in disbelief. “She has rested”, Mum (aunt Milly), replies back.

I asked of how her (grandma’s) last  moments were and  I am told that she slept well and peacefully. 

The guilt for not having seen grandma before all these happened, made me emotional with a debt and torment because I missed her laughter, firm handshake, firm hugs and talking to her, above all her blessings!!!

She is gone, She is gone to a better place.

Love, Love, we ought to always love and find time for the closest people in our life when we and them have the possibility…

Grandma loved hearing about the story of dry bones  Ezekiel 37:1-10

The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet, a vast army.

Grandma, you have finally rested.

Rest Well in Eternal Peace.

Amen!!