For Nya

I am in pink today. Eunice is in pink too. Many of her friends as well. We have all gone pink today for a little girl called Nya. Today would have been her seventh birthday. She left us two years ago.

I never met Nya. I met her mother, Eunice a year after she had passed on. I went to her office for an interview for a story for one of the local magazines. The editor had briefed me on Eunice’s loss but it obviously had not hit home until I met her. Not that she wears a long face and carries a miserable air about her. On the contrary, she is one of the most alive people I have ever met. She said hello to me and I liked her instantly. Her smile is one of those that hold you and make you feel good about meeting her.

As we sat down in a small intimate meeting room, I remember Eunice excusing herself to get something. She walked back holding a pack of tissues and explained to me that the day had been especially hard on her; it was family day for her Company. This meant bringing kids along for a fun day.

I hardly wrote. I listened. She cried, I cried. Her not in anguish but for missing Nya. Me in complete and utter anguish for this woman who I had just met who went through hell, lost her little girl and her very special friends and still smiled amid her tears. Her life was still sunny side up. She had chosen to live and purposefully.  

Nyambura was the love of her life. Pink was her favourite colour which she settled on at two. At three she was a girl; she picked her jewellery and was so confident she asked for what she wanted. As she went to school, she carried a flower to the van everyday for her teacher. Nyambura was a lover of people, she easily made friends. She was very grown-up for her age and Eunice says perhaps it’s because her life was packaged into the five years she was on earth. She is glad she spent time, did things with Nya. She is greatful she developed traditions that they followed. If anything, she does not regret never being there.

I want to celebrate Nyambura today by honoring her mother. She was given an amazing mother. She was held in the arms of a great woman, looked into a beautiful face when she called out ‘mum.’ A woman who got a second chance at life and chose life and not depression. Eunice, I celebrate, we celebrate Nya today through you. You have taught me to live, to love, to forgive, to be kind. Nya was a lucky girl to have had you for a mother.

Happy birthday Nya.