TLC

One topic that does not tickle my fancy is what I have decided to write about today. I come from a family of twelve and I am the eighth child. Sometimes I wonder who will die first and how the remaining ones will handle the news and the absence of that one that goes first.

I, like many other people do not enjoy discussing death; the reason is obvious, no one wants to die. I know that no one wants to die because the ones who wanted to die took the bulls by the horns and now they are either dining with God or sweating it out with the devil whilst wishing that they had lived better. The rest of us enjoy living.

I also think of hubby and wonder how one will cope without the other, they say that the men find it hard to cope without their wives; that is what they make us believe, I see father living well and over coping without mother. Lol. But seriously, we like it like that.

Death is unbelievably so final, the person is gone and gone for good. Sometimes I wonder how the end will be for me; through a sickness or an accident, when I am a lot older or now that I am young? Who knows? Death is no respecter of person and it is one thing that places everyone on the same pedestal.

They say love is blind but the really blind one here is death, it sees no age, if it did, my nephew Kanyigolibe would not have died one week after delivery, Onyechi my handsome brother in law at thirty four would have been anything but dead; in his twenties, Kingsley was destined for greatness but death stopped him. Joy was an extremely beautiful girl, full of life and had it all going for her but death came knocking before she turned thirty.

Death is deaf, it does not hear when one says “please”, if it did, those who bear the name Onwubiko (“Death please” or “Death I plead with you”) would live forever. No matter how much you scold death for visiting your home and it does not matter how rich or poor you are, death comes again if it so wishes; it took three of my loved ones in one year; father, son and mother. Death does not give two effs whose ox is gored.

Even if you pray down the mountains, when death comes it comes; my God we prayed and prayed for mother to get better, bloody deaf death, it didn’t hear us and had to take “Omalicha”.

The fear of death is very limiting, it makes one to literally stop living and to the good Christian the fear of death could be sinful. They say they are not afraid to die because they know that they will be with Jesus; till they see a near fatal accident and all you hear is “Blood  of Jesus” but sister, I thought you said you wouldn’t mind dying and going to meet God?

Truly, everyone wants to see God but no one wants to die to really go meet God. Many will opt for Elisha’s kind of journey to heaven in the chariots but thinking deeply about it, for someone like me who has a phobia for heights, I would be scared shit, flying is definitely not my favourite thing to do.

Someone once said to me that my eighty six year old father is at the departure lounge of life and this may appear true; but who really knows who is at the departure lounge of life? Blind death does not see, in fact death is an illiterate, it cannot read people’s ages, a lot of parents would have gone in place of their young children.

No parent wants to bury a child, the thought alone is heart breaking, this kind of thought is a no go area, it is an evil thought; it is a thought that should not be thought of.

Death is not only blind and deaf, it is also dumb, it has been asked over and over again, “Oh death where is your sting?”Yet it wouldn't say anything; when people cry over loved ones, they ask Mr. Death why, but death never replies; it does not speak, dumb thing!

I once told a celibate friend that she needed some TLC (just in case you have forgotten, Tender Loving Care) and her response was both funny and thought provoking. “What if the rapture takes place while at it?”

This reminds me of my Lokpanta village choir; they had this song which they rendered in their local Igbootic voices, “When Jesor, when Jesus comes, wia wih you, wia wih you be? When the trumpey when the trumpey(trumpet) sands (sounds), wia wih you be? Some wih be in de church reading da baibu (bible) some wih be in de club drinking and dancing, when Jesor comes and takes away His pipo you axe(ask) yasef right now wia wih you wia wih you be?”

An ordinary song with a very deep meaning, I laugh when I think of what some people could be doing when the trumpet sounds, please don’t be like the old man who was making out with a young lady, when he started to pant in a strange way, his young lover asked him if he was “coming” and in a shaky voice, he says “my daughter, I don’t know if I am coming or going” lol.  I pray that like me my friends will be in the church praying and singing on that day. (teheehee)

One thing is sure though, I cannot afford to miss heaven, not after all my troubles here on earth especially as a Nigerian living in Nigeria. The rich and famous are having a ball now so please pay them no mind; the good life they live now should sustain them in hellfire, lol.

I hear that the streets of heaven are made of gold, I do not need anyone to tell me, I have to see it myself, I just have to see this wonderful God face to face but not now, God please. I hear that there is no age in heaven so even if I die at one hundred years old, I will still be very active and agile.

Anyway, our main concern should not be the fear of death but the fear of dying without Christ. Capisci?  If this post got you thinking please say “o hor o hor”