England | MASON COLLEGE & PASS TUTORIAL COLLEGE,FESTAC,LAGOS

SUBMITTED AS AN SS3 STUDENT AND PRESSED ON THE SCHOOL’S NOTICEBOARDS (NOTAZINE)

That day seemed different from all other days. It was a particularly warm day in December. Bells were ringing and voices singing. Every day the sky got brighter than usual and blessed the earth with a smile. A smile which created an imaginary description of someone special who was born in a manger and how good tidings were brought to men. Children were not be left out.They were having a good time. Even the sick ones felt better in many ways.

Despite the pleasure in the air, Linda looked desperate and helpless. She lost her mother at a very tender age and her father Willie had gone sick mentally since then. Willie was a very strong man when his wife was alive. He continued remembering how his wife gave up the ghost on a cold night just like that. This was sad because there was no hospital around and it was colder than usual. Willie worked day and night to make sure Linda was well fed and educated. At times he would go starving so that Linda could have a balanced diet. He worked on his little farm everyday and the little produce was sold while some eaten. Willie had saved his last penny to give Linda a grand Christmas season. He bought her the cheapest (though beautiful) clothes and bought a little coat for himself.

Linda was however much more interested in her father’s health. Each day, he got worse mentally to the extent that he used toothpaste on his bread for breakfast and did not even notice it. At night, she would go to bed and cry throughout the night only to wake up early enough to clean their little shed isolated from others. She would clear the farm and prepare for school which was several miles from there. She believed in education and knew that learning made one the wiser. Her life emitted hope.

Christmas passed by swiftly and New Year followed.Many changes to signify the beginning of new lives followed as many youths had decided to make resolutions. But Willie’s case was getting worse each time and Linda could not help being sad since her father was her Fidus Achates and his death looked like it might be the end of things for her.

But one sunny day Willie called his daughter and spoke to her as if she was on a voyage. He told her to put her shoulder to the wheel and make hay while the sun was shining. He had hardly finished this when he began to cough and alas, he died leaving his daughter in the hands of a cold wicked world.

Somehow it rained cats and dogs that day and Linda had to stay in the little shed with her father’s dead body lying motionless on the bed. She was felt frightened and very lonely throughout that night and tears were all over her. She felt an eclipse over her sunny world had appeared.

But fortunately after a few months, Linda was awarded a scholarship while in secondary school to study medicine in a University. She was overjoyed and thought her father’s ghost must have been at work. She had suffered in the months following her fathers’ death and would have given up 0n life. There were times she had to beg before swallowing just a few morsels. And sometimes she had to go on imperative fasting. Luck came her way once in a blue moon through some Nuns.

She met many students in the university she attended. Some of her well-to-do colleagues were also lucky to make their exams and they are now in university like her. She met Sharon a girl from a wealthy home. She was the only child of her parent and very popular. She was not as bright as Linda and so had green eyes. She was actually pushed into the school with a set of false results.

After the first test, she was warned and asked to take her lectures seriously but she preferred going to parties. She started boycotting classes and after failing three times, she decided to opt out and get married. She said she was tired of education and could not make a sense out of it. She got married illegally to a man who was an undergraduate and she quickly bore him two girls.

On the other hand, Linda had spent four years in the university with lots of torment and there were times she had to take the bull by the horns bearing in mind he who would laughs last actually laughs best. She has been ridiculed by all her friends, including Sharon. She was however ready to bury the hatchet with her if she came back. Linda is a pretty girl and very few men could do without admiring her. But she was determined to succeed in life and not ready to put the cart before the horse. To her one need not rest until one got to a limitless Zenith.

After two years, she graduated and became a medical doctor in Wellington Hospital, London. Everything worked fine for her and she opted to marry. The world indeed was at her feet. After six months of meeting Dave who was four years older, she concluded she had met a man of integrity and dignity she could call her Adonis and started going out with him. And eventually they got married at a well attended society weeding which hosted the who is who in England.

But how about Sharon? Her daughters are 6 years and 4 years and knew their father was not wealthy enough to take care of the family. In fact, he became tired because Sharon was a full-time house wife and was not ready to work. After graduating, he got a low-paying job and had to fend for his children with the salary. In fact, it was Sharon’s mum who had been sponsoring her daughter since her father disowned her for lack of interest in her studies. Unfortunately the mother was now dead and she could not go back home. She began to experience the platitudes of life as she could not do any job either .

Sharon’s husband started changing his attitude. In fact, he hardly asked about his daughters and was ever coming late as a drunkard. Later, he turned a new leaf and stopped drinking but he hardly stayed at home. At last, he confessed to Sharon that he was going to marry a new wife who was more educated. She had to pack out without the children because he could no longer put up with her illiteracy.

How painful!, Sharon thought over his last words … “more educated”. “Does that mean I have to go back to school to make amends and become like every other person”? She asked herself. After packing out she wrote a letter to her father that she had turned a new leaf and was no longer in her husband’s house and was ready to go back to school if she could be given a second chance . Of course, lost time could never be found but one could be determined for a yeoman’s job to make for what was lost.

Fortunately, she met Linda. Linda was her very good friend in the university though she used to taunt her jealously.. She actually met Linda by chance on her sick bed at Linda’s hospital. She had been admitted for high fever. She would not believe her eyes when she saw Linda as the doctor who had attended to her during her two days of coma. She narrated her story amidst heart-wrenching sobs and Linda embraced her and told her to come and stay with her. She helped her into a new university and Sharon eventually became a lawyer with a first class degree! Above all er father forgive her at last. Linda and Sharon became good friends and both prospered.

A particular night, Linda thought about her life and tears of joy rolled down her cheeks as she remembered her father’s death, the eclipse and this new too good to be believed paradise on earth she was living in.

SEYI OLANIYAN

(Now Dr Mrs Seyi Olaniyan-Adeleke Resident Doctor (Obs & Gynae) at OAUTHC)