Death is inevitable, and the family it stings lives on with the venom. I am going down the memory lane and the lane seems so unforgettable despite the days and years that have passed by the event. I was just a secondary school girl waiting for my parents to visit me on a day known as 'visiting day', but unfortunately my parents couldn't make it. The figure I saw was a dark boy holding some goodies coming down from my school gate to the visiting desk. Oh no! It's my elder brother that came visiting, I lamented. I was worried because my pocket money would be a meagre sum which would have been the reverse case if my parents were the ones visiting. The first question I asked was 'where are my parents?', and he said soberly....Our cousin Funto died and they both travelled to Lagos to visit my aunt. Suddenly, I had a mood swing and the saddened mood swept my feet away all day. I didn't have a clear clue of what death was about then because I was still 14, but despite my vague knowledge, I wept and I couldn't console myself because I thought I was going to see my cousin again after my last visit to Lagos at a tender age.
The recent visitation of death to the Ocholi's family is another scenario that poured the ink of words on my tablet. I wonder how a promising Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), his lovely wife and a handsome son could bid the world farewell in a tragic manner. I was glued to the television continental station seeing the news, and unfortunately to my viewing I saw the tragic story being told. Are we concluding that a SAN did not have the cash to procure good tyres for it to have caused the car to somersault which led to the loss of lives?Or should we say that the negligence of the driver cost them their lives? Only God has the answer to the mystery behind the death.
Earlier before I heard the news of the Ocholi's family, I saw a film trick in reality. I took my bag going to church on that fateful sunday, and right in front of me a man putting on a white garment attempted to cross a dual lane road. The pedestrian crossed the first lane almost gotten hit by a bus driver, but he escaped the death threat. I was also looking for a way to get to the other side as the man did, but as I soliloquy about the man that just crossed the first lane saying in my dialect 'Please old man don't kill yourself, God never said die in impatience while serving me', I looked at the other lane because cars had stopped moving, alas! a man putting on a white garment was knocked down by a bike man who ran away. Ask me who the man is? the man that I saw crossing the first lane and escaping the death threat of a bus driver, but unfortunately he died crossing the second lane being hit by a bike man. I was shocked and fear came upon me. Only a second exists in between life and death, I said repeatedly, and continuously I cried to my creator.
The death of the Ocholi's family and the white garment man now got me thinking that the rich could not bribe death, and the pedestrian who I can say was poor could not afford to bribe it if money was the price. What is the price of death? Should we say time? 'Time', if only we know the time, we would prepare well, but in the case we do not know, we should live every day like it's the last we are living.
I have friends that are orphans, loved ones that lost either of the parents or siblings, and in some cases friends or lovers. If I ask most of them what RIP should be known for, I am sure that almost 99% would scream in chorus " Return If Possible", and not "Rest In Peace". Let the tears be wiped off, let's all live an exemplary life that we may walk justly and death will be like sleep. But the prayer we should observe, the Lord says he will bless us with long lives, and that we shall not die but live in the end with Christ. His word he says he holds in high esteem than his name ( A name above every other name). Keep keeping on, even though it's inevitable.( O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ) 1Corinthians: 15: 55-57.
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