Gbade observed how people struggled to get food. There was shoving, dragging, cursing, and slapping. He could hear things like ‘Ma te mi mole now, a bi ori e o pe ni,’ which means do not step on my toes, or your head is no longer correct. Some even got a pack of takeaway amidst the chaos, but it was dragged by another hungry person. Some got a pack and still came back for more, and some got it and poured it all on the ground due to the ongoing chaos.
Gbade turned to the drink stand and saw another set of people struggling to get drinks. There were varieties of drinks ranging from juice to soft drinks to alcoholic drinks. From where he sat, he wondered which crowd was bigger. He looked at most of the faces of the people in the crowd; he knew some of them, while some were strangers.
He wondered if these people were waiting for his grandmother to die because they all seemed hungry. Did they even care? Like caring to know how his grandmother’s family was faring or caring that someone loved just died.
He shook his head and took a deep breath; he realized none of them knew his grandmother well. He had lived with her for thirty-five years, and he knows she would have brought out her long cane to chase all these people away.
Did any of them even feel sad that a fellow human was gone? Did they even listen to the sermon preached by the pastor about death and the afterlife?
Did they even feel for his grandmother, who died at the age of 80? Or they assume it was an elder that died, so therefore everyone should be happy at a life well spent.
Was the life really well spent?
Gbade shook his head again as tears gathered in his eyes. He thought as the people kept struggling for food and drinks. He thought about whether this was actually a befitting burial or an unbefitting one. He wondered if his grandma lived a fulfilled life. He wondered if it ever crossed the mind of the struggling crowd if his grandma lived a life of purpose or if she just came to waste 80 years on Earth.
But who is he to think for another fellow human? A fellow human who doesn’t know the time of his death.
He stood and walked to his grandmother’s graveside. His body shook as he remembered some of the small discussions they had anytime he was on holiday from school. There was one that was imprinted in his mind; she had wished she had followed God at an early age and not when she was now old. She believed if she had, her life wouldn’t be as directionless as it is. She had more fulfillment now, unlike her younger self, and she wouldn’t have made some decisions that led to drastic consequences then. She was grateful for the opportunity. Gbade remembered again as she stressed this sentence: “Find God early.”
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart”. Jeremiah 29:13
That same month she went to be with the Lord. She asked to be buried the following day she died. Gbade wept uncontrollably as he missed her and wished she was here to help him find God.
He looked up at the sky as he spoke. ‘God, as I leave here, I am on my way to looking for you; let me see you, please,’ he said.
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