Taking things or people in our lives for granted
It is fascinating how, in most cases, we take things or people in our lives for granted. We rarely have such thoughts as to how it would be without them in our lives. We make plans in preparations for a better future which is not even promised. We never think that such plans can be taken away in seconds. I never had a thought about it myself until the unexpected happened.
One morning I woke up exceptionally early ready to participate in a swimming competition at the state level. Excitement filled my heart, and I couldn’t control my happiness and jovial mood. The winner was to go home with $1,000, and I needed this money to help my parents in paying my school fees. In the night before, I had ensured that every attire I required for the swimming competition was all set and also slept at 8.00 pm to ensure I was relaxed come the competition day. I wanted everything to fall into place as per the plan I had developed. I was up at 5 am and at 6.30a.m, I went to sit in the dining lounge waiting for my father to wake up and drive me to the competition venue.
At 8.00 am, my parents were still asleep, and I didn’t understand what was happening as I couldn’t hear them talk or anything. I waited for some more minutes, but the situation didn’t change. “Why is he not a supportive father?” I asked myself. I knew this statement wasn’t fair as my father was very supportive of my dreams, but this time I was annoyed. I tried to ring the bell to their room as I didn’t want to go in while they were asleep but no response. As I continued to press the bell switch, I became impatient and stormed into their bedroom. The first thing that my eyes spotted was the tears from my mum’s eyes as dad had already wiped his, but the color of his eyes was betraying him.
My first question was, “What is wrong, mum?” but could not answer as her words were being chocked or instead blocked from coming out of the throat. I embraced my mum tightly, and even without the knowledge of what was going on, I just told her, “Everything will be alright.” From behind, I heard the voice of my father: “It will never be okay, your grandmother is no more.” Those words tore my heart into pieces, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Every part of my body went numb, and I felt like everything had fallen apart. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I just let them roll. I couldn’t realize that the person I loved the most besides my mum and my dad was no more.
A week later, the funeral came. That was the longest day of my life. The casket was lowered into the ground, and all I could hear were whispers from friends, “In time, it will be okay.” “How will it ever be okay?” I asked myself. The next couple of months were hectic, and her image couldn’t leave my mind.
My grandmother was an essential person in my life. She had characteristics that I all loved and I enjoyed living with her for the few days my parents allowed me to visit her place. She was an influential person in my life and every day I work so hard in everything I do. “If my grandmother was here, would she be proud? Would she approve?” those are the questions that always come to my mind when I am making important decision in my life.