NNEKA ( Mother is Great)

                    

Photo Credit: Fume Fasoyin.                            A fish seller

 

 

Mothers are supreme, there is no arguing that. I recently visited to Mushin market in Lagos and for the first it hit me.

Alot of women selling their wares,  either had babies sitting on their backs or toddlers back from school playing beside their wares. I stopped for a second to do a head count and realised not one man had an infant or a child beside him.

Now this made me smile. It strengthened for me, the resolve that women are phenomenal beings. Don't get me wrong men are special too, just that women are....... there are too many words. For a no matter where a woman works, her children will someday find their way there probably because she is primarily a care giver. It is rare to see men take their children to their places of business. If this happens, it's either bring your child to work day, the child is a teenager and came on their own to pick up funds for school, the father wants to show off, or the mother is sick and there is no relative to drop the child with. This is not to say men are not caring of their children or that women are unprofessional. All this is saying is, most mothers are ever willing to sacrifice, stand, fight for their families. Also, some fathers are out there sacrificing in their own way for their families. 

So my nephew comes home one day from school with a note to wish his mother, a happy mother's day.  The note depicts how I imagine mothers were created. here's the note;

"When God created mothers"

When the good Lord was creating mothers, he was into his sixth day of overtime when the angel appeared and said, "you're doing alot of fiddling around on this one" and the Lord said, "have you read the specs on this order? She has to be completely washable but not plastic, have 180 movable parts.....all replaceable, run on black coffee and left overs, have a lap that disappears when she stands up, a kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair and six pairs of hands" the angel shook her head slowly and said  "six pairs of hands?" No way

It's not the hands that are causing me problems said the Lord, "it's the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have" ,"That's on the standard model?" Asked the angel, the Lord nodded saying, "one pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, what are you kids doing in there? When she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn't but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front so that she can look at a child who goods and say I understand and I love you without so much as uttering  a word." Lord, said the angel touching his sleeve gently "come to bed, Tomorrow"  

"I cant" said the Lord, "am so close to creating something close to myself...Already i have one who heals herself when she is sick,...can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger......and can get a nine year old to stand under a shower" the angel circled the model of a mother and sighed "it's too soft" "But tough!" said the Lord excitedly "you cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure." "Can it think?" "not only think, but it can reason and compromise" said the Creator. 

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her fingers across the cheek, "there's a leak" she pronounced, "i told you that you were trying to put too much into this model" "it's not a leak" said the Lord, "it's a tear"

"What is it for?"

"It's for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness and pride" you're a genius said the angel. the Lord looked somber "i didn't put it there".