It is a natural phenomenon for school children to have snacks either on their way to school, or during break time, or immediately after school before lessons.
Some pupils in extreme cases, are even motivated with snacks before they can be convinced to go to school. So, the role of good snack either packaged in form of lunch bag or ordinary snacks can never be underestimated in the early education and childhood of a young student.
Just recently a Nigerian man, by name Ugochukwu Tony Oputa went down memory lane to reminiscence some wonderful aspects of his childhood. He did this by sharing a sweet and emotional story of his father and uncle who had a reunion with a generous Akara seller, who always gave them free snacks on their way to school, 40 years ago.
A surprised but elated Ugochukwu, posted the story on Facebook on Sunday, 10 January and shared photos of the scenery with the caption;
Today, while having the usual morning round table discus with my kinsmen, my Dad recollected the story of a lady who sold Akara while they were very small. He stated how the lady would always give them Akara every day they passed her place while going to school.
” My Dad’s brothers also stated the same. They said it got to a point that the lady would deliberately keep aside some portion of Akara to give to them anytime that stopped by. This was over 3-4 decades ago, and the lady should be way above 100 years now.’
” My Dad said thoughts of the Lady had always crossed his mind and was of the opinion that he had an obligation to see her, at least while she was still alive.
” My Dad’s brothers bought into the idea and within minutes, we decided to drive and go locate “Daada
When we arrived at her place, it was amazing to see how agile she seemed after living for over a century.
”Immediately we got to her, she hugged every one of us with excitement and rubbed our foreheads with the charcoal on her fingers, while raining blessings on us. Amazingly, Daada was able to recognize the “Children
” They recounted their experiences with her, mehn, you need to see her excitement. The thing is, she never had any child of her own, but her kindness to these children was phenomenal, and for these “children” to visit her unexpectedly after many years, in remembrance of her act of kindness, it was a great deal to her. She entertained us with groundnuts.
”When we were about to leave, everyone put funds together and gave to Daada for Christmas, and Daada told us to come together, went in to bring get her Bible, and started praying for everyone. She went on to tell us to write our prayer points individually in her Bible. It was an awesome experience for me, as I left there feeling so blessed.
She prayed for us from her heart. In her words when translated,
“I’m not leaving yet, but still, you all will live longer than me. As you came together today, please when I finally leave this world, you all should come when I’m being laid to rest” May our good deeds always be remembered.”
Despite the fact that Daada wasn’t blessed with a child of her own, she was the epitome of what many could refer to as “the Authentic Afrcan Mother” because, she was still very sensitive to understand and give out love to all, and this love was felt by so many people who came close to her and knew her.
Many people who read the story on social media Facebook platform couldn’t hide their emotions as they kept pouring in their love and showering her with prayerful accolades for being a true mother.
Gift Joseph Okpakorese
Staff Writer
