for the first time in a long time, i didn't wake up early to catch the president's independence day address to the country. i mean, anyone following the happenings in the past few months can by himself write the independence day address. considering that no visible progress has been made in any sector of the economy, i expected them to scrap the speech and show a nigerian movie instead. but i guess president yaradua still had something to say: about the challenges of the past few months in the global economy and the success of the amnesty programme. right. thanks, goodbye.
yesterday, my brother who went to abuja for a week, sent us all an SMS that he was already at the airport waiting to catch a 5 pm virgin nigeria (or is it nigerian eagle now?) flight to lagos. clearly by 6 pm the flight should be in lagos and by 7 pm max, considering it was a sunday evening, we expected him to be home. so of course by 6.30 pm we began to call him. MTN network informed us that his number "does not exist". really? a number we just used to communicate with him just above an hour before? not "unavailable", not "switched off", but completely extinct?! of course, my mum starts to mumble prayers under her breath and sing christian songs loudly, insisting the whole time that she was fine and wasn't bothered in the least. yeah right. but every two minutes, she'd ask me a question like "or maybe the flight was cancelled?", "or maybe he lost his phone?"...i'm sure the unspoken question was: "or maybe he's lying hurt in a gutter somewhere?". my phone was ringing off the hook, my dad in abuja, my sister in egbeda, my cousins had been somehow roped in (wonder how these sorts of news spread sooo fast?!)...everyone was trying to reach him with no luck and trying to ensure that my mum hadn't gone into a coma. eventually, by 8.50 pm, i got into my car and drove to MM2 to confirm for myself that the virgin flight did indeed arrive and that my brother was on that flight, at least to narrow the options should a search be necessary.
to cut an otherwise annoying story short, by 9.15 pm there was expectedly noone at the airport to confirm the flight statud and just when i was trying to use my mobile phone to browse and get virgin's customer care number, my phone rang and i was informed that he'd just stepped into the house. naturally, i was furious with him for not at least sending an SMS if he knew his flight was so delayed etcetera etcetera. but on the drive home, it occured to me that my anger was actually more an expression of relief that everything was back to normal...that there'd be some sleep tonight and that we were back to status quo as a family. for some context peeps, my brother is 21. a grown man with maybe like 12 girlfriends or something, so why on earth we went through all that trouble certainly beats me... but for those brief minutes when we couldn't locate him, all malice was forgotten, all quarrels suspended and nothing else mattered...and then i wondered what all the people who have their loved ones kidnapped or lost must go through. the ceaseless attempts to reach the lost by phone, the police reports, the endless prayers, the instant grief that will probably never be erased.
i doubt that i'll ever understand the trauma of not knowing where a lost loved one is: a sibling, a parent, a grandparent...a child. its often better when they die and we can get some closure knowing they're safe where they are. gone but safe. its not the same for loss without death.
so i'm saying a prayer for all those still keeping the faith that someday somehow, a lost loved one will walk in through the door and have everything go back to normal. May the good Lord give them closure and the strength to continue...and i'll obviously never look at an advert for a lost person quite the same again. i wonder if they're ever found?
till later peeps.
yesterday, my brother who went to abuja for a week, sent us all an SMS that he was already at the airport waiting to catch a 5 pm virgin nigeria (or is it nigerian eagle now?) flight to lagos. clearly by 6 pm the flight should be in lagos and by 7 pm max, considering it was a sunday evening, we expected him to be home. so of course by 6.30 pm we began to call him. MTN network informed us that his number "does not exist". really? a number we just used to communicate with him just above an hour before? not "unavailable", not "switched off", but completely extinct?! of course, my mum starts to mumble prayers under her breath and sing christian songs loudly, insisting the whole time that she was fine and wasn't bothered in the least. yeah right. but every two minutes, she'd ask me a question like "or maybe the flight was cancelled?", "or maybe he lost his phone?"...i'm sure the unspoken question was: "or maybe he's lying hurt in a gutter somewhere?". my phone was ringing off the hook, my dad in abuja, my sister in egbeda, my cousins had been somehow roped in (wonder how these sorts of news spread sooo fast?!)...everyone was trying to reach him with no luck and trying to ensure that my mum hadn't gone into a coma. eventually, by 8.50 pm, i got into my car and drove to MM2 to confirm for myself that the virgin flight did indeed arrive and that my brother was on that flight, at least to narrow the options should a search be necessary.
to cut an otherwise annoying story short, by 9.15 pm there was expectedly noone at the airport to confirm the flight statud and just when i was trying to use my mobile phone to browse and get virgin's customer care number, my phone rang and i was informed that he'd just stepped into the house. naturally, i was furious with him for not at least sending an SMS if he knew his flight was so delayed etcetera etcetera. but on the drive home, it occured to me that my anger was actually more an expression of relief that everything was back to normal...that there'd be some sleep tonight and that we were back to status quo as a family. for some context peeps, my brother is 21. a grown man with maybe like 12 girlfriends or something, so why on earth we went through all that trouble certainly beats me... but for those brief minutes when we couldn't locate him, all malice was forgotten, all quarrels suspended and nothing else mattered...and then i wondered what all the people who have their loved ones kidnapped or lost must go through. the ceaseless attempts to reach the lost by phone, the police reports, the endless prayers, the instant grief that will probably never be erased.
i doubt that i'll ever understand the trauma of not knowing where a lost loved one is: a sibling, a parent, a grandparent...a child. its often better when they die and we can get some closure knowing they're safe where they are. gone but safe. its not the same for loss without death.
so i'm saying a prayer for all those still keeping the faith that someday somehow, a lost loved one will walk in through the door and have everything go back to normal. May the good Lord give them closure and the strength to continue...and i'll obviously never look at an advert for a lost person quite the same again. i wonder if they're ever found?
till later peeps.
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