Today was the first time I saw someone get buried. It was the only Grandma I have ever known. Her name is Marian. Everyone calls her Maa. She had a nice very nice coffin and the very stony sand we threw on her coffin felt too rough. I think I would have liked less stony sand. It was a solemn moment for me. I stood and watched for a little while longer while the body her soul used was left there to return to dust.
Funerals are meant to bring people together. This one certainly has. Throughout the day, I have felt like I have been reliving my entire childhood. People from all walks of my life, growing up in community 3, family, distant relatives whose faces I know better than their names and even Kwabena who stood behind me in those solemn moments, had all converged. They had become a part of Maa’s life. She has always had a way to bring people together. It is something all her children and, at least, some of her children’s children, love to do.
Today, my family came together. Us grandkids stood along the part of the Volta river that runs through Atimpoku and had conversations that were fun, conversations that were overdue and conversations that were tough. I fell in love with my family all over again and I loved it. I am thankful to have had thos moments.
I learnt that family is hard. Entropy puts us in relationship with strangers who we grow to love and then, we learn that that love does not come easy. There are hard questions to answer and impossible choices to make. I pray for the Grace to hold these well.
I know… I’m rambling. Its hard to write a tribute to your Grandma. I get sad, because I don’t feel like I remember much of her. I have come to know her more in her death than in her life. I have come to glimpse, her character, her challenges, her quirks and her story and I have come to love and truly appreciate the life she lived. I see it in who I am and who my family is. And it brings a smile to my face.
I miss her. I miss everything I could have gotten to know about her. Rest well, Marian.