Merry Christmas!



I will not resurrect the ghosts of christmas past for in doing so I may just dissolve in tears.

It is another Christmas and I am alone without my family! It is difficult hearing their voices over the phone, the excitement, the chatter, the plans of celebrations, the clatter of spoons, forks and knifes against plates, the unrestrained laughter that flows through the space and fills my room with more longing for home.

It is difficult knowing that once again the christmas chicken will be bought and dressed in spices and cooked slowly to make it succulent and only my imagination can bring to life its sweetness in an empty pot! No fanta or coke in bottles to wash down the jollof rice that was prepared specially for the christmas morning.

There will be no christmas trees- plastic or artificial for its not our custom to adorn the branches of a tree. The smiles of family glad to be together do more to brighten up the room than a plastic angel ever will. No presents will be exchanged for every day is Christmas and gift giving is not just limited to that one day.

Christmas at home is what I will miss this year! But thanks to Friends I will not be alone dreaming in vain. Thanks to friends I will have a jolly good time, laughing six hours after christmas is over at home; with friends who have reached out to make this day memorable and when it is over I will tuck it away in my drawer filled with sounds, scents and smells of another christmas past.

Merry Christmas and God Bless us, everyone!

Comments

  1. lamikayty3:44 AM

    awwww and I'll be missing you too!!!!!!!!! Thank God for friends. Merry Christmas dear!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good Naija Girl11:47 AM

    I'm thankful that you had friends to spend Christmas with...it can be quite lonely otherwise!

    I've never had Christmas rice in Nigeria...maybe
    one day!

    ReplyDelete
  3. olaoluwatomi3:57 AM

    @Ty Missed you gan!
    @GNG Thanks a bunch, we should do something to rectify yor not having xmas rice in naija o! :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Death III

Image
In recounting my near misses, I can't but think of how many other misses I am unaware of. As a child, I was the only one who was hospitalized a few times compared to my siblings and cousins. I cannot remember if I ever felt sick enough to be at deaths door, but I do know I disliked getting injections. During one of my trips to the hospital I was to receive a Novalgin injection, for those of you old enough to remember Novalgin, it was the most painful torturous injection ever. I screamed hell and blue murder as the nurse approached with a Novalgin shot. 'I don't take injections', I lamented in my most piteous voice, you would think anyone with a heart would see the tears and back down but those nurses were a special breed. After a few minutes of my temporary madness, my father was summoned, it took just one look from him and I accepted the drilling of the syringe through my marrow (that was what it felt like) without as much as a squeak. The feeling Novalgin gave your bu...
Read more

Death 5

Image
Over the past few years, I have observed with much more attention, the passage of generations. I listened to the retirement speech of an old teacher of mine in medical school. She spoke about wondering why a classmate of hers in high school was bereft because her father had died in his 50s. Her own parents were in their 30s and according to her, she thought 50 was ancient. She tactlessly commented about her friends grief wondering why she was so distraught. She made us all laugh when she mentioned that now at the age of 70, she does not count herself as one of the ancients. My job brings me face to face with death on a daily basis and this has spurred me to put my house in order. I have had documents prepared for the disposal of my earthly benefits and I have appointed financial and health power of attorneys. I mention, like I mentioned in my last post to prevent the DMs that never fail to follow these posts, that I am not actively dying but I think preparing for death is as important ...
Read more

My Mother Tongue!

I grew up speaking English as my first language and I can tell you that is one fact I am not proud about. I remember once when we were much younger shouting out the only Yoruba words we knew as children 'olosi', 'oloriburuku' etc. My grandmother came out of the house hurriedly to put a stop to our foolishness, what on earth did we think we were doing? she asked, our reply still puts a smile on my face 'we are speaking Yoruba' we replied. My lack of proficiency in speaking Yoruba ( I can write it:) is revealed anytime I speak to my patients. When our conversation is not just me answering in monosyllables, I begin to speak rapidly in my mother tongue but by the end of my first two sentences, I hear myself stuttering and stammering and Im wondering if the patients don't think this doctor is having a sudden attack of catatonia! My Yoruba teacher in Secondary school summed up my Yoruba speaking prowess to my parents during an open day 'She is a good student b...
Read more