I believe Grandma will be happy and smiling in heaven right now because of the way her ceremony is going on, I never expected it this way but everything has been planned by her children who have been expecting this day to come as they want the event to be the talk of the town while honoring her burial ceremony. There are abundant foodstuffs as caterers have been hired daily from morning till night to come and cook while making sure everyone who comes to greet has something to eat before they leave.
Before now...
After the death of Grandma, the ceremony was scheduled on the 31st of August and September 1st. Immediately the date was picked, plans and preparations have been going on. It became something we were looking forward to as we were eager for the date to arrive so we could come together as a family. I have been anticipating this day to come because I knew all my relatives would be coming. There would be a fuller house as extended families would show up to honour Mama's death; I became so happy to reunite with my family including those I have seen for years. The death brought us together again.
I planned my journey and left my base for my hometown in Kwara state, the North Central part of Nigeria on Tuesday, this week.
The journey was almost a 7-hour journey and it was a stressful one at that. Sitting for such long hours on the bus was tiring and at the same time was frustrated with how the journey was especially with the way the driver was driving slowly even when passengers kept telling him to speed up so we could get to our destination on time. After long hours, I finally reached my destination. I was welcomed heartily as people came around to embrace me, especially the ones who had seen me for a long time or the ones I had seen for years. We embraced and hugged each other while I greeted the older ones among them. I felt so excited meeting a fuller house as everything was going steadily. Everyone was busy with different tasks and everywhere was bubbling with music from the speaker that was rented.
The atmosphere changed for me when I entered the sitting room, looking at Grandma's favourite chair and seeing no one that looked like her. It dawned on me that she was gone forever; I miss her so much. I was sad for some minutes while I went inside to say some prayers, thanking God for the safe trip while unloading some things I bought from the journey like bread, oranges etc. I saw my siblings as we hugged each other and before we knew what was going on, we started gisting and sharing memories of Mama as we laughed remembering the funny moments with her.
I was already too tired and weak to do anything; my younger sister had to serve me my favourite solid meal which was Amala and Ewedu soup, which is a common Nigerian food especially eaten among the Yorubas. Due to my hunger, I couldn't remember to take a picture but I took this one where it was remaining fish and ewedu soup.
I regained my strength immediately after I finished eating; food is life indeed. My eyes cleared as I was able to see everyone clearly and also took a stroll around the compound to see what was happening. I saw two cows and was told 3 more cows were still coming which makes it 5 cows to be killed for this ceremony.
I went through the other side and met the caterers at work as they were so busy making things go as planned so that no one would be left out when it comes to serving food.
I moved closer and greeted them, stayed for a while before going back inside. I got into my room and it was filled with lots of souvenirs to be shared with all the guests coming around.
Everywhere has been occupied with stuff bought and presented to us for this event and everyone just has to manage. In my room, we are 8 people and everywhere is so choked excluding the hotels that were booked for guests; we have no choice but to squeeze ourselves together with the bags and cartons of souvenirs, at least it's for the main time till the ceremony ends, by then, there would be more space for ourselves.
Since the caterers were hired to do the cooking, there has not been much work to do and this is like me being treated like a real princess who doesn't have anything to do other than eating, sleeping, bathing, relaxing etc, but it doesn't mean I wouldn't do anything so I don't get to become lazy or trying to take the advantage and leaving other tasks for the younger ones; I just have to do what I should do.
With this harsh economy, all villagers have been coming around to eat from morning till night and we never complained nor sent them away because food is surplus and this is something we are grateful to God for. Since Monday, the caterers have been cooking different food to be served to everyone. In the morning, they prepare pap and akara which is called bean cake, in the afternoon, they either make white or jollof rice and at night, a solid meal is next. Though, everyone is entitled to ordering any type of meal as they desire and the caterers are doing an awesome job in that aspect. It is not easy to keep cooking from morning till night but since they are paid for the service, they have to do their best in delivering a quality service to us.
Grandma is the reason for the celebration and I am sure she would be smiling with the way the preparation has been moving even before D-day. I still couldn't believe she was gone finally and the reason for this great event.
They killed one of the cows, fried some and added others to the stew for serving meals. I went to request meat to taste and was given two which I gave to my younger sister. Here is the bite remaining before I remembered to take a picture.
Well, the day ended so well that everyone went to sleep. The next day, we woke up, did morning devotion and everyone started moving around the house with one or two tasks to begin with. As usual, the caterers arrived and got ready for the day's work.
We ate breakfast while we continued welcoming new guests who came for the burial too. It has been a tiring day but we didn't stop doing what we needed to do. Later in the afternoon, we decided to arrange the souvenirs placing them in a customised nylon with Mama's name on it. Myself, cousin and younger sister did the packing. We started with the white towels as we removed them from where they were kept into the new customised nylon as you can see below.
This didn't take so much time as we believed in teamwork. The work got faster with more than 2 persons who were able to cooperate and achieve a desirable result. It was fun too as we played some music as suggested by my sister who believed music has a way of giving energy to things like this. At the end of the day, we were excited to achieve something better. We will be moving down to the church later in the evening for service of songs while tomorrow, we will be laying Mama at her residence as reception follows at the King's palace which is just a stone's throw from our house.
Thanks for your time on my blog.
