Truly, as our age heaps surly and surely, our consciousness shifts from riches to mortality. When we start experiencing near-death situations through famines and diseases we naturally feel insecurity. At the end of the day, we realize, like the great King Solomon, that fame and fortune and earth’s glory are all worthless after all as the same are pure vanity.
One relative who died among the three was a known trickster or con artist and land grabber in my maternal family. He and my mother were cousins german and I grew up hearing about his deceit especially how he duped my late grandpa regarding the latter’s own share property.
I’m not certain if he really became a rich man but all I knew was he died a painful death. He suffered a stroke that permanently denied him of his words and lived the rest of his life in the confines of his bed.
I grew up hating the man in my psyche though the memory of his face remains vague as I guess I met him since childhood once or twice only. He was a butt of joke or insult when the topic segued to him in every occasion or reunion of the family. ‘Twas all because offsprings in my mother’s line almost all were denied of college education and early suffered extreme penury.
Perhaps it was hard to accept then that inheritance which did not belong to him was deceptively taken and sent my grand old man’s heirs weeping and gnashing teeth and just wished shame on him. Upon receiving news of his death, I was so thankful no one in the family hastened to kill a fatted calf and went out rejoicing.
In between sadness and relief he’d finally found rest from his sufferings, I’m happier to know that my soul, as well as my grandpa’s descendants’ too, finally gave up a lifelong bitterness toward him and let him die totally forgiven.
No comments:
Post a Comment