A Tribute to the best woman life offered me, my mum.
I am not a fan of epistles nor do I fancy eulogizing anyone for no good reason. However, if I start to write about a woman so brave and courageous, I would not be able to control my emotion. But I will try to share a little.
My mum, Mrs. Bolatito Ajeigbe was the last and the only surviving child of my grandparents, who had previously given birth to eight other children and lost them to the cold hands of death just before they grow up to three months old. Due to their poor background and inadequate or lack of medical facilities in the community, they were unable to prevent the death of the children, but my mum was a strong and brave child, she fought through!
My mum grew up in the ancient town of Oyo in Oyo State, Nigeria during the early 1960s. A period that the country experienced a lot of changes such as the independence and the civil wars. And this makes growing up and getting a good education very challenging. She overcame the hurdles, and she has been overcoming several difficulties afterward. When I grew up to recognize her as my mom, she was the best thing that ever happened to me. Her love for children was second to none; you'd hardly differentiate her kids from others. Kids in the neighborhood regard her as a mother. The first thing you will notice is her beauty and friendly looking face, but above all that, she was a very patient, caring and understanding, a woman with a high level of intelligence. She was also an excellent listener who is always willing to prover solutions to whatever problem you share with her. No wonder she had many mentees who made her their role model on their own volition.
Mother was very hardworking and prudence. She had to combine working two different jobs and studying together while at the same time taking good care of the family even at a period dad was not always around. She was a secondary school teacher and a professional photographer while she was taking a part-time degree course at the university.
Dear Mother,
I never witnessed your sleeping. You'd watch over us, six children, until we all go to bed before you'd sleep and will still be the one to wake us up in the morning, for morning devotion. But when she fell sick, that was the very first time I saw her sleep; it was a strange experience. That's when I realized how strong a woman you were all this while. You left us on 13th October 2003, to face the world by ourselves. You had equipped us, well enough to shoulder the responsibilities and challenges through practical examples and your teachings. I was just a nine years old boy when you gave me the chance to sketch how our house should look like, and you instructed the architect to design just the way I drew the sketch. Mum, I'm happy to let you know that I have helped many people to plan and built several hundreds of houses of their dreams afterward as a professional engineer that I have become today. And right now I am writing this piece at a corner of my fantasy house which you made a reality. It's sad you are not more here to witness your little engineer doing what he loves to do. Your words of encouragements and teachings about life still ring in my memory. It was as if you already knew you wouldn't be here for long. You thought us the way to live a purposeful life, even while we were still very young, when we were yet to know the meaning of been persistent, we thought you have only been harsh on us.
You were such a rare gem, a blessing to us your kids and the others you took as yours. You believed so much in prayers, and I think your prayers kept us going. I love you, and I miss you so much. Dad and my siblings miss you every day; nobody can fill the vacuum you left in our hearts. Continue to rest in the bosom of the Almighty till we meet again and to path no more.
Engr. Bolaji Ajeigbe
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# Memorials # Mothers # Tributes