Greetings!
For one thing, my mom is the typical African woman who is hardened and strong to the core. We do crop farming on a vast piece of land, and as it was then and even till now, we have work designated for men and that of the women, which she's boldly in charge of, especially the Cassava harvesting and processing, which is done on a regular basis.
Apart from the hard work, she's so tough that whenever she's beating us, she beats the hell out of us, making it wonder if she's actually the woman who gave birth to us.
In all my stays at home, I can count the number of times I saw her shed tears, one of which was when my aunt (my father's sister) died, who was her very close friend. The other one was when I was leaving for school, which was shocking to me and is one of the biggest memories I hold of her.
In my house, before my parents gave birth to the little ones who are currently at home now, we were two boys and three girls, of which I and my brother, who is the immediate younger to me, were the only guys at home. Most of the men's farm work fell on us, along with my dad.
My immediate younger brother happened to travel to Port Harcourt to live with an uncle, and in the same year that he left, I gained admission to study at the polytechnic, which meant the home would be devoid of boys. Of course, everyone at home was happy because I gained admission, and as such, we began preparation for my school stuff. We bought a lot of things, which were fully sponsored by them(parents); my only duty was just to work on the farm in my last days at home. I mean, contribute very well because once I'm gone, the work, such as clearing grass, would be left for my dad alone unless he's going to get laborers to do such work.
The day finally came, my dad left for the farm as early as 6:30 am after giving me all fatherly advice and instructing me to call him once I got to the school area. My mom wanted to go to the farm that day, but she declined because she needed to make sure my loads and arrangements were intact.
Time got to 11 am, and I went to the road to get a bike to the compound to help me take me and my loads to the terminal. When coming back with the bikeman, I met my mom in tears. I was like, what? So, this woman can really cry over mere things? Lol😂
She tried covering up and making me not see that she's crying, but I saw it, and she couldn't help it when our eyes met. The words that came out of her mouth were, "Your brother is gone and you're going too, no one again in the house."
She meant to say no boys again in the house, but the way she said it made it look like the three girls at home were invisible.
I went on to hug her and told her to chill that I'll be calling her regularly.
That's it, remembering that day makes me want to shed tears because my mom went all softened that day over a mere life occurrence.
Thanks for reading.
This is my entry to ladies of Hive contest 184
All photos are mine