Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Empty Nester/Retirement (from work) (09/10/09)
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TITLE: A Better Yesterday | Previous Challenge Entry
By Uzoamaka Eneli
09/16/09 -
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It dawned on me that day!
In the mist of the hectic schedule to get my last daughter- April to church on time for her wedding, I realized that finally all my children were out of the house starting their own lives. I took a pause to let the new realization sink in.
It seems like yesterday when I couldn’t wait for this time to come. With 5 children, a job and a husband to love and care for, I was entangled between trips to the market on the way to pick them up from school, trying to prepare dinner saddling April on my back with a wrapper while insisting that Tobi and Faith did their homework, coaxing my teenage Victoria to help out with the dishes even if it’s not her turn to do the chores, then giving Ken a piece of my mind for pulling the house down with the volume of his CD player.
It got worse when Ben- my husband passed on 6 years ago. With him gone, things turned to a bedlam; fighting to be a good mother and juggling 2 jobs to be a good provider. I remember nights I would lie on my lonely bed too exhausted to think of anything than how to get the strength for another bedlam day. Sometimes, there was just no time to think at all: just breathe and survived!
Now, I look at April’s glowing face, smiles from older children, hugs from various relatives and I recognized that in as much as I look forward to catching my breath; I‘ll still miss those hectic, energy filled days!
I’ll miss the sound of the boys running around the house, the girls whining about who took whose shoes or used whose hair brush, the smell of my sweat and food filtering my nose as I prepare dinner, the late night room- round to tuck them all in bed and switching off all lights.
Those days are now gone for good and I look forward to other things: Thursday women’s bible study, more time for my garden, the community service at the orphanages, a better unhurried quite time and of course the vacation.
Yes, the kids are all on their own now and as I give my soon-to-be son-in-law a hug, I know there’ll never be a better yesterday just a good today and a better tomorrow.
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