[dropcap]T[/dropcap]oday, I had insight into the mind of the older generation and I was shocked how different their way of thinking is. I actually stumbled on my mother’s diary when I went to see her today and I couldn’t resist the temptation to read it.
Call me nosy and rude and unethical, I still don’t regret falling for that temptation because it gave me a different perspective to life. Apparently, keeping memoirs runs in my family. Here’s one of the stuff I read.
The private life and thoughts of a 65-year-old widow. Here her in her own words.
“Whenever I say my enemies are after me, everyone thinks I am a cranky and superstitious old woman, no one stops to think that a woman my age must have a little bit more wisdom than most.
“Anyway, let me explain what happened today. I have been planning a trip to Freetown – capital of Sierra-Leone (by the way, I am a Sierra-Leonean, who married a Nigerian) for the past four months and I am scheduled to leave next month.
“My children (sons and daughters) have been making their contributions towards this trip (flight to and fro, items for my family members back home, survival money during my stay there, etc.) and I have been very grateful and proud.
“Suddenly, just this morning, my second daughter walks into my house, all smiles and excitement to announce to me the fact that she had quit her jobs two weeks ago and for what, ‘To pursue her dreams,’ she said.
“You can imagine how upsetting this announcement could be to any well meaning mother. I told her pointedly and in plenty of words how much of a disappointment she was to me and herself and had she ever seen or heard of anyone who became successful by pursuing dreams and where would she have seen money for school, clothes and food if her father (my late husband, God rest his soul) had pursued dreams, and where would she see the husband now that she was a jobless woman.
“She couldn’t get a husband when she had a job (especially as men of this generation want to marry working class women – nonsense men if you ask me. In my time, real men provided everything). Wasn’t it this same dreaming all over the place that sent Joseph to an Egyptian prison (if not that God showed him mercy). In fact, God should show her mercy and deliver her from whatever our enemies had done to her because this has everything to do with my enemies.
“I rushed into my room, brought out my anointing oil and began to anoint the whole house, including my daughter’s hand bag and the pair of shoes she took off when she came in. My daughter just sat there looking at me as if I were a mad woman.
“Anyway, I don’t blame her; this generation is doing everything upside. What business does a woman like her have dreaming? Is it that the dreams she dreams on her bed at night don’t suffice for her? In my time, all any man needed to dream was how to make money to take care of his wife and children, while the woman would dream away what methods she would employ to ensure her home was well taken care of. Now, not only has she shortened my funds for my trip by bailing out on her share, she has given my enemies another cause to laugh at me.
“I will have to extend my midnight prayer by an hour to night, this battle must be fought on the knees, a mother’s work is really never done,” this energetic woman said.
Grandma!
I think that sometimes our mothers spend all their lives taking care of us that we have no idea they have any form of education or creativity at all. I am surprised to find my mother can actually write.
I actually found her diary interesting even though I don’t know what to think of her opinion regarding the roles of men and women –stereotyped-gender roles if you ask me. I can’t say if it is some shallow stereotype or if it should be considered appropriate. Whatever the case, I found it really interesting.
‘Still looking up to Jesus now more than ever.
A_Ema
