I'm actually not the type of person who likes travelling and this is not because I don't like adventure or going to a new place but one of the reasons is because I'm weird. I have foods I don't eat because they make me uncomfortable due to my lactose intolerance and many more so in other not to allow people to make me feel it's a great sin not to eat some type of food, I just choose to stay in my house and I also have road trouble and this is different from the road sickness, worst than the road sickness and this is a rare case because whenever I stay too long in a car, I feel so tired when I get to my destination even when I'm not the one that drove, the level of my tiredness is as great as not being able to eat or shower or do anything till the next day.
Despite all this, one fateful day my mom said I needed to know my origin and also it was the right time I meet my grandma after 23 years on Earth, I got really excited because I had read a lot about my hometown and how life is in the village which made me so anxious to experience that kind of life and here is the most exciting part, my mom said I would be going alone. It's my first time, What if I get lost, I asked my mom. She made me understand that, my family is very popular in the village and to shed more light on the popularity, I'm from a royal family. At that moment, the explorer in me was ready for a prince treatment adventure.
The plan was to stay two weeks and I already had a plan for each day, I was so determined to experience everything I had heard about, those town hall meetings, and story time under the full moon even though I knew I was an adult, going to the river, going to farm, I also want to date a village girl, going to the palm wine and bushmeat joint, every of my plan for that two weeks was maximum fun.
After I got to my state I needed to take a cab down to my household and that was how I believed what my mom said about my family, after the cab man heard where I was going and found out I was one of the grandchildren, the cab man took me there for free and gave me his number that I should call him anytime I want to go somewhere and for that two weeks, my transportation was going to be free and this was as a result of the good deeds my grandma has done, my excitement double the minute I heard free ride anywhere but when I got to my household everything changed.
It was when I got home I figured out that my grandma was blind and I had to describe myself with both my dad and my mom's names for her to know who I was, It was like writing an exam to join the armed forces. She described where the visitor room was and when I got there it made everything worst, the room wasn't looking good, there were spider webs everywhere, the room was dirty and dusty, and I'm not sure if the room had been open in years which that moment reminded me of the horror movies I do watch, those creepy rooms, then that moment I knew this vacation was about to go bad but I still had my hopes up and my schedule would still be my schedule, all I have to do is skip one day to fix my room and all will be fine.
That day, I slept in the sitting room and the next morning my grandma woke me up as early as 6 am and we prayed for an hour.
She mentioned each of her children's names and grandchildren's names one after the other and prayed for them, After the prayer she asked how my night was and we had this little conversation that morning. After that I went straight to clean up the room which I couldn't finish that day, The wardrobe needed some mending, had to wash the windows, scrub the floor, wash the bedspread, and fix the bedstick too. Gradually my vacation was turning into renovation and when I asked her what was for breakfast she said she had eaten and that's the same answer I get when I ask for other meals too and I also didn't see any family come by the house, it was just some random neighbours.
So on the third day, I decided to monitor her, to know what she eats, and then I noticed she ate pap all day, I know you are 80 plus years but why pap all day, so the next day I woke up very early and I went to the market with the help of my cab man, I bought yam flour and okro with some fish. I bought pepper but one thing I forgot to do was check the kitchen before I left for the market, the kitchen looks worse than my room. But instead of cleaning all that morning, I checked if the water was running, checked for the pot and plate and checked if the stove was working and after this, I prepared an almost zero pepper okro soup with scrambled fish and the Amala was as soft as a newborn baby ear, she notice the aroma of my soup so she called me and asked if I was cooking and I replied her yes, I could see the smile on her face. I served her the food and told her what I cooked and I was praying she would be able to eat it which she did and she loved it. It was on the fifth day, that I entered her room when I decided to sweep the whole house and her room wasn't in good shape, At that point, tears rolled down my eyes and my anger towards my dad and his siblings doubled.
I started asking questions about why they neglected her considering her health condition and every story I have heard about her is not bad. I also didn't care if she was a witch or she was cursed, she was human and that's the most important thing.
I cleaned the whole flat she was staying and I also decided to paint the walls because the old paint already peeled off, I did minor electrical work too in the house and my 2 weeks vacation turned into 6 weeks, we had a lot of beautiful moments and she told me a lot of stories, I served her breakfast with tea and her dinner with juice, in the afternoon she always take yoghurt. She drained me with history about my forefathers and that was how I knew I had a Portuguese background, I asked her how she got blind and why none of her kids came around, but my grandma still went on defending them.
There were nights I slept off on her bed and the most fascinating thing about her was, that despite being blind she still bathed herself, She ate herself and could walk the whole house without anyone's help and not that alone, she could walk the street with zero help. I remember the day I was leaving, I cried because it felt like home being around her and the smile on her face was priceless, I made a promise to get transferred from my university to another in my hometown so I could be close to her and take care of her better but death came knocking even before I could do that.
Before I left, I looked for a suitable househelp and bought her a small phone so we could talk, I was doing all this with the profit I made from trading crypto and I didn't care how much I was spending because it was worth with, I didn't hesitate to give my dad a lecture on caring for our old one's. Just like they say 'Tomorrow might be too late, do what you have to do today', check up on people because you don't know what will happen tomorrow.
Till tomorrow I kept on reliving those moments we shared and I was happy I did. I still check on the cab man once in a while and soon after my exam, I will be going to pay her a visit where she is buried. I miss her so much and sometimes I wish I had gone to her place earlier.
I hope you enjoyed reading this and I hope you learnt some lessons too? It's all love from me to you.