My brother and I still joke about this experience as we would laugh away our sorrow. You know the kind of laugh that can't be controlled anymore, causing you a headache as the vein in your head starts to rise while hurting you but the laughter seems not to stop, and then it turns to a group of people joining in, suddenly, your eyes turn red and tears start to drop? Who else has had such a rolling laughter before? Yea, laughter is a good medicine and when there is a funny scene or story, please laugh and forget those worries for some seconds.
Sometimes, I will just sit down, reminiscing on the past and then it begins with me smiling, then when I continue flashing back to how things played out, I would start laughing which would make people ask why. While they are asking you, they begin to laugh too because they assume it must have been a funny thing, and you know, laughing is contagious, it even spreads more quickly than information.
I appreciate God in the life of my brother because when I look at his past and present, there has been a big difference. When I heard that my brother had turned an Apostle in church, I couldn't believe my ears because this was a person who lived a rough life, he joined cultism in his secondary school and became a violent boy. Despite his unruly behaviour, he never disrespected us and our parents. I thought it was a lie until I saw my brother dressed up one day to church with a nice shirt and trousers, wearing a tie, trousers and sprayed perfume. Ahh..my brother using perfume? No way! This was someone who was against people using perfumes or even roll-ons because he thought it was only the dead people they spray perfume on and when he uses it, that means he is a ghost 😀😀 This is now someone who has fallen in love with different kinds of perfumes and roll-ons lined up in his wardrobe.
My brother who was in Secondary school then couldn't express himself in English. He was always a deaf guy when it came to replying to a message in English because he was used to speaking our native language (Yoruba) even in his school. The use of the English language wasn't mandated as the teachers too weren't helping matters. He went to a public school in Ogun state and that environment didn't help matters for him.
There were some little children in our neighbourhood where we lived some years back who played with us very well and my brother was fond of playing with them too, so they liked him and would surround him every time. Those children could only communicate in English while my brother didn't know how to speak but could hear.
Anytime the children spoke English to my brother, he would remain deaf and find an excuse to leave their gathering. Another problem with my brother was that he was a stammerer; he would use 5 minutes to say a line of a sentence and this affected him coupled with the fact that he couldn't express himself in the English language.
One day, my brother was playing with them as usual and I was outside enjoying myself too. I already knew my brother's condition and I was there ready to entertain myself with laughter because I knew these children would talk to him. As they were playing, the only two words he understood well were "come here" and "stop" 😃😃 so those were the words he kept repeating all through which was kind of funny to the children because they were enjoying him as he was lifting them in excitement.
A little boy asked him a question and my brother who had been shouting "come here, stop it" suddenly became a deaf person 🤣. The boy was waiting for him to reply, and I was watching from where I was seated, laughing so hard that everyone heard me but didn't understand what was happening. After a while, I pitied him and used style to call him as a way to escape the embarrassing moment. I called him to help me take something inside which I followed after.
We got inside and the laughter began again while making jest of him. He kept saying "Sis, thank you so much, you saved me today" When Dad and Mom came back, we narrated the story to them and they laughed too. Since that day, my brother stopped playing with the kids to avoid any embarrassment.
This positively changed his life as he was taken out of the environment to live with my aunt. He joined the teenager's department in the church where he started mingling with the children who were speaking in English language.
My brother became someone who owned a big dictionary and bought different English grammar books to train himself which he has improved today. He turned to someone correcting me with the right use of words and I was amazed at the change. He was determined to learn how to express himself so he wouldn't be disgraced again.
