ECHOES FROM THE PAST: Of women and the craddle #Ugblogweek

Come child, come and I will tell you a tale of a lady I know, a lady that rocked your cradle. In the business of the 90’s I had you and your big doll eyes that shone bright with eagerness made all my insecurities dull. I knew I was going to enjoy motherhood for a very long time. You were my pride and I was in awe.  You child, are the best thing that ever happened to me.

But you will forgive me, if between raising you and breast feeding you; I failed to cuddle you all day long. But I am proud that in raising a home alone, I had the best lady to rock your cradle. She was a beauty and quiet in character, a giant in size but that was the deceptive part of her, her size made it hard for you to be bullied but she was just a silent harmless lady. She loved you all, even your other siblings, she was more of a friend than a house help.  She loved us because we were the only people that opened our doors when she needed help. She told me of her story, long before she entered the city she was married but life was cruel that she saw her children and husband die in a difference of hours. They say, she was bewitched but she knows they died of a strange disease. Child, never judge a person’s life through the lens of your mortal eyes. The outward is always deceiving. No one took her in, until she came to our home.

Back then, when we had little to behold in our three roomed house, she worked effortlessly to make sure you had milk to take when I was away. She started the shop you see today. It was not big like this but it was a start for us. Oh Kezia loved all of you like her own. She called you Maaso glory because of your big doll eyes, only Kezia was allowed to call you that, the rest called you “gaalo”. It was your brother that first called you that, when I first brought you home and it stuck since then. And don’t be cross at him, he thought every baby girl was called girl. 
Ah, everyone loved you, but Kezia mothered you like her own. I remember her once telling me that she would have named you Angel because like an angel, the gods had sent you to her.  She saw you grow from a baby into a school going little lady.

Then she died, she went back to visit her husband and children’s graves and never returned. She died the same way they died. I was heartbroken, I cried for days on. She was my friend; she had taught me a lot as much as I had taught her. You know child, Life will bring many people along your path of life, be happy with everything they teach you even the bad things. Kezia changed me and also helped me love you better. When I looked at you, gleaning with excitement whenever you came from school, I saw Kezia’s big boast smile. She always waited by the door to see you leave to school and then would burst out in tears at how fast you had grown. She missed having you at home. So between the growing shop and house chores, she learnt to look forward to telling you all about her work at home. That was her way of telling me how her day was spent, through you child.

I see you and I know, I have made Kezia proud. I put you in a boarding school at a tender age because I could not find any one fit to raise you the way Kezia would.  I have made many mistakes with you but I have also won in many things with you. When I look at how far we have come, just the four of us, me raising you to love each other, I feel a sense of comfort in knowing that you are happy with what life had to offer. But don’t get comfortable child, Kezia always told me, to get up and change my life. That is a lesson I now entrust to you. Get up and change your life. If Kezia had wallowed in pity on that sad day when she lost her family, she would have never seen the beauty of life through our simple home. She would never have seen you live through life as a happy loved child.
That amazing lady made motherhood easy for me even when she left because I always got up, always.