Help beg the Messenger of Death to wait

Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things — Arthur Schopenhauer

Death is the end of humans existence. This has been the truth for many years, which we all know but find it challenging to owe up to.

Our friends and families know we can drop dead at any point in time but they pray to God not to kill us.

As an adult, the first thing I say to God in my prayers is “ Dear Allah, please keep me for long and do not make me die before my parents. Make them successful as much as they want”.

Have you seen the anguish and pains parents go through when they lose their wards? I have, and I pray no one I know ever have to go through that.

Death is a sad reality that’s excruciatingly hard to swallow. Imagine toiling hard to raise a child and something just snatching them away in an inhumane way.

I have heard countless stories of how Final students just drop dead just before their glorious moment. Corp members succumb to deaths through accident and other ways.

One night, my next house neighbour was brought back home bundled like a well laid cloth. It’s true it is the day of our death we turn to a mannequin. M was a versatile man who doesn’t hide his dreams to be successful. Even though he was a tad older than I am, we all sit down to play WHOT together and discuss about school life.

The lives of his parents are not the same again.

In 2017 while serving as a youth corp member in Niger state, I registered to be a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management, I didn’t know it would be a catalyst for me to have one of the emotional moments of my life.

I woke up one Saturday with some corpers to make the 2 hour journey to Minna, the Niger state capital to start my classes for NIM in preparation for the exams.

The journey started well with three corpers including me and three natives, including a kid.

Just as we entered Bida, a city in Niger state. One of the passengers sitting beside me started convulsing and in no time, he stopped.

We thought it was a minor case and we told our driver to park. We tried resuscitating him but when we checked for pulse, there was none. I have had to watch how pulse is being felt in movies but i did it that day. His neck and hands were numb and his nose was cold. It was a scary experience that we couldn’t even believe. We stopped other cars and asked for help. They confirmed that he was long gone but it was hard to believe. How can someone go that way? Was I dreaming or seeing a movie?

We entered the car and continued our journey to Minna. Sandwiched between me and my Corper friend was a corpse, someone smiling and looking happy less than an hour ago. Is that it? Is that life? I sat with the corpse till we got to Minna, that was more than one hour journey with a dead man.

He was confirmed officially dead at the General Hospital, Minna. It was one of the days i will never forget in my life. Ebere, Sydney and I couldn’t proceed with our class. We returned back to base and for days, I couldn’t open up to anyone. Did i try enough in saving the man? What if that was me? What if we met a team of policemen?

However, beyond these questions, what would the parents he said good bye to two hours ago be thinking about now?

It would have been a sad experience for them, one which they will never forget in their life.

Tonight, I saw Fahim Saleh sister’s story about his death, it was so heeart shattering and demolarizing. How can such a beautiful man with stunning smile just go like that? It is something to die, it is another thing to die in such manner. I hope the authority will help Saleh find justice.

I pray God forgive him his sins, illuminate his grave and give his family the fortitude to bear the irreplaceable loss.

Death is inevitable but I pray the Greamreaper wait for us to fulfil our purpose in life and not make us source of sadness to our parents.

I feel sad remembering! I cried thinking about it.