My Superwoman,

You've been on my mind way more than usual this past month. It's you I think about and smile just before I gently fall asleep each night. It's you whose loving thoughts I wake up to the beautiful morning after. It's you who's the subject of those soothing dreams in between. It's absolutely impossible not to think about you when virtually everything around me reminds me that you're not here, and that there's still that great big void that time will never fill. Evidently, I still miss you so very much.

May Day has always held such special significance to me, not just because it's your birthday, but because your birthday has always been a worldwide holiday day - Workers' Day. And even though there was hardly any day you weren't easily being your usual workaholic self, I usually got the chance to spend most of your day at home with you, and watch and listen as the birthday felicitations poured in from left, right and centre. The birthday was yours after all, and virtually everyone was enjoying the holiday, so it wasn't ever surprising how your devices never stopped buzzing. Year after year.

Last year's was one of the few when you had to go to work even though I wished you'd just stayed home and got the rest you so deserved. I always thought you worked so much harder than you needed to, but you didn't mind. You had to go. I remember you came home later that evening and, after telling me how it had gone at the office, thanked me for my little birthday writeup that you saw here on Facebook. Somehow I had hoped you wouldn't see it, because I didn't want you thanking me. But you did, and you loved it. I felt pretty fulfilled, even though I didn't want to feel that way. I didn't want to ever feel like I had done enough for you, because I never could. How could I?

I went through your tablet just last week and repeatedly watched that video of the happy birthday song you were sung in your office by some close coworkers. You looked so happy and beamed with the most elegant smile. You did your signature “baby girl dance” (that's what I've chosen to call it) as you answered the “how old are you now” question. The joy that gracefully radiated from you was as unmistakable as it was undeniable. I found myself smiling with you and even laughing each time the video came to an end. That's the woman I have grown to know and love and learn about life from... and now miss so dearly.

I miss waiting up on you those nights when you had to work really late and get back home at midnight. How could I go to bed when you weren't home yet? I miss sneaking into your room after you had slept to whisk your tablet away and fix the things you complained about which I seemed oblivious to... and subsequently use your data subscription. You never minded. I miss waking up in the dead of the night to pee and hearing the familiar sounds of your fervent prayers. I always wondered how you could do that - come home so late and visibly exhausted and yet get up to pray barely a couple of hours after.

I miss waking up at 4:30 a.m. those days when you had to be in the studio for the news at 6. I miss helping you fix breakfast those few mornings that afforded you the time to eat. I miss helping you iron your clothes... and having to do them all over again because they didn't look the way you wanted them to. You taught me to always be deliberate and painstaking and never take anything for granted. I see now just how much of my perfectionist tendencies I owe to you.

I miss listening to you talk about work, about the good and grand changes that were coming. I knew you wished I talked a lot more about school; I wish I could too, but I really just loved listening to you. I miss all your nostalgic stories about your childhood. About the yam you cooked for Grandpa, which he said was the best he'd ever had. About the time you suffered hot oil burns to your right hand while you made stew, and how you consequently had to write your exams with your left hand - something you had never done before. The beautiful thing about it? You still were unbeatable despite the odds. Number 1 always! What further motivation could I ask for?

Can I just say how much of an influence your absence has made me realise you have had on my life? No single person has had half as much impact as you have on me. No one has been there for me like you have. It's after all your lens through which I now see this world. You've made far more sacrifices than I could ever ask of you in good conscience. That's why the only things I could ever consider achievements or ambitions worth pursuing were the very things I knew you would have me chase after, because all I wanted to live for ultimately was to put lasting smiles on your beautiful face. Smiles like the ones in that video from this date last year.

That ambition has not changed. Not one bit.

Happy birthday, Mom! Thank you for giving me all of you and holding nothing back. Thank you for showing me this beautiful path of great virtue and perfect excellence. Thank you for lighting up my life with yours and setting my entire world on raging untameable fire!

Your lifelong personal assistant and number 1 fan forever,

Michael


http://egbuna..com.ng

May she continue to rest in the Lord.
mums are the best

anitapreeti:
May she continue to rest in the Lord.
mums are the best

Amen. Thank you!

may her soul rest in perfect peace (amin)

Adefiery05:
may her soul rest in perfect peace (amin)

Amin!

This is just beautiful. . RIP to your mum.. may 1st used to be my parent's wedding anniversary until my mum died .. would have been their 24th year ...

may God continue to grant her eternal peace. Take heart nothing pains like losing a mother. Mums r d best

Omaresh:
This is just beautiful. . RIP to your mum.. may 1st used to be my parent's wedding anniversary until my mum died .. would have been their 24th year ...

Oh. What significance the day must bear for you as well. Moms are irreplaceable. Thank you.

marychommy:
may God continue to grant her eternal peace. Take heart nothing pains like losing a mother. Mums r d best

Amen. They really are the best. Thank you.