JOYOUS LAUGHTER
Part 1
© Franca Uwuigiaren
Since I had an encounter with God, I made a decision to make Him proud. I wasn’t going to turn my back on Him, no matter what. My love for my Father is indescribable, and my faith in Him is unshakable. At gunpoint, my loyalty will still be to Him. Nothing will separate my love for Him.
I’m Aisosa Efosa. I’m of average height and beautiful. I’m full of kindness and compassion for my fellow humans. My beautiful dimple is unmistakable.
Life has taught me and my four siblings terrible lessons. Our parents died very early in life. They didn’t know God.
In my father’s family, males were being hurried out of the earth, and my father was scared at that time. Even though I was little then when death started claiming lives, I knew how my parents would discuss what to do concerning the death of male children in the family at night.
When I was nineteen, my father’s immediate elder brother died, and my father cried so much.
“I’m just fifty-five years old… am I going to leave my five children like that? Does it mean I will not see my children finish university and get married? Won’t I see my grandchildren?”
It was my father’s lamentation that brought tears to us, the children. How are we going to watch our father die at such a young age?
Whenever my mother sat alone, she thought about what was happening in the family and her inability to do anything about it. While we were still mourning my uncle’s death, his first son slept and didn’t wake up. It was a terrible and devastating period for the family.
In the family house where we all lived, there were graves everywhere, making it difficult to find space to bury my uncle’s son. My father, who was still a struggling young man, had to rent a house somewhere, and we moved out.
I got admission to study Mathematics at the university and made many friends. One of my friends who stood out was Iwinosa. Apart from being intelligent, she is a lover of God. She’s hot, and she burns like fire. Her parents are Christians and have grounded her in the things of God. I became close to her. She led me to Christ after answering my many questions. She bought me my first Bible, and I began to study God’s word to know about Him. I began to pray too.
You can’t be Iwinosa’s friend and not know how to pray. We were really close. I told myself that when I went home for the holiday, my parents would know about Christ. In 2002, I had no phone, neither did anyone I know. If I had, I would have spoken to my parents about Christ.
I was hoping to finish my first semester exam and then go home when my younger sister visited and informed me that my father was dead. I almost fainted in the hostel. I packed my things and followed my sister home. I asked her what happened, and she said he slumped.
We went straight to the family house. There was a crowd. My father had died five days ago and was balmed in the house.The day my sister came to tell me was actually the day he was buried. I was shown his grave. How I wept!
My mother would suddenly wail in the middle of the night, not allowing the neighbourhood to rest. Many nights, she cried. Family members brought food for us, and just exactly ten days after dad was buried, mum was eating when she pushed the plates away and cried out, “My stomach, my stomach!”
Before we could rush to call our neighbours, she stretched out and died. It was like a dream to us. The woman who served my mother the food was the first to rush in and raised an alarm. Many people raised so many unanswered questions. I couldn’t say because the woman is the one that served my mother food, she’s the killer. Anyway, that’s how mum died, and we became orphans.
I was the eldest among five children. We were shared among our parents’ siblings. I was asked to live with my uncle, the last son in my father’s family. He lived in Lagos, and I followed him. He was nice, but his wife was the problem. She was mean, and I had to bear the pain of her insults and sharp mouth.
My uncle, before his death too, didn’t send me to school even after I passed my JAMB twice. I had to start working. I got a sales girl job, and two years after, I left my uncle’s wife and children to live my life.
At twenty-three, I wasn’t thinking of a relationship. I wanted to make something out of my life. I also wanted to serve God in truth and in spirit.
I never forgot everything I learnt from Iwinosa. I wanted to be a light in my family. Because I was living alone, many guys started making advances at me, but I wasn’t ready. I thought of my siblings, separated from me, and wanted them back. I thought of the deaths ravaging the family. The fourth and fifth children of my parents are males, and it got me worried.
At that time, I began to pray, asking God to break every covenant of death in the family.
“Father, my parents gave birth to two male children, death will not cut short their lives. They will be old, and the remaining males in the family, you will preserve them.”
It was the prayer I prayed every day, crying to God. I was also worried that my siblings didn’t know God. I worried over them because I didn’t know how they were treated.
I saved enough money and returned to school. I went for a full-time program. To earn some money to meet other needs, I made hair for students almost on a daily basis.
To be continued…
© Franca’s Pen ✍️ 2024
Inspired by the Holy Spirit
