Against All Odds

Chapter Thirty five: Grief

Obi had once read from a book about the five stages of grief. It entailed:Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Reading how characters reacted to death, some were thrown into depression and later acceptance. Different people reacted to loss in distinct ways and even though the stages of grief were present, they often followed the stages in different patterns.

DENIAL

The first week was grim, Obi walked around the house like a ghost, the shock was still fresh and deep in the night she often wandered around the house listening and hoping to hear her mother's voice. Visitors trooped to their house on daily basis, some bearing gifts, money and kind words. Others donated pity which Obi never reacted to.

Sleep fled her eyes at night and she often dreamed that her mother came to the house and plaited her hair just like she did when she was little. Her mother's scent was still fresh in the room and she found herself staring at her hung clothes and old photographs.

The scent of the pomade her mother generously applied on her body hovered in the air, the box where she heaped her clothes was still clean and not rusty. "How could her mother be dead when everything in her room felt alive? ".
Breaking the news to her siblings was even more heartbreaking than she imagined.

Ifenna and Oluebube broke into a hysterical cry and Tobe could not even feign his usual show  of masculinity as tears streamed down his face. Obi felt nothing, she felt like she was in a nightmare that had just begun and she had no way to escape from it. Obi sat at the chair staring into space as the tears ran down her cheek and her siblings wailed.

Mama Nkem was the one who helped calm the children, Obi noticed how old the woman was becoming she had been so caught up in her life and struggles that she barely noticed other occupants of the compound.
Daa Agatha mma Nkem's daughter had made dinner for them, with Obi helping out with tasks in the kit hen like pounding . Obi only nodded when she was spoken to. She knew the people around her were worried and she avoided getting them to question her sanity by doing necessary things in the house.

Her siblings were outside playing with the other children, they were playing a game called "Tempe", hoping on one feet and often counting numbers. Obi decided to sit at the verandah where she usually stayed to receive visitors who came to offer their condolences. It was true what was said about people bringing themselves out to mourn someone but not to offer help when the lost person was still alive.

The number of mourners that trooped into their house rarely visited when their mother was alive and now all of them spoke good things about the woman and promised to be there for her children.
Chukwudi's mother visited them everyday with food stuff, mma had requested to see Obi in her hut and Obi never knew the extent to which the old woman was mourning till she saw her.

She had always believed that the older a person gets, the more they got stronger grips on their emotions and handled situations well.
The old woman's tiny eyes were puffy and her expression grim. Her lips were dry and Obi suspected that she had not been feeding well.
Mma's hands were filled with tremors as she reached out to hold Obi's hand.

" ihe a wu aka ndị iro m The work of my enemies !" The woman lamented.

"si m dị ndụ, lie ndị kwesịrị ili m, im now burying the ones supposed to bury me".

Obi now understood what ailed mma. It was much painful for her because she felt she was the one due to be claimed by death. The old woman began a sorrowful dirge and began to weep like a child. Obi felt like crying at the pathetic picture that was displayed in front of her by mma.

The words left her mouth before she even knew what it meant. "mma ozuola it's okay". Mma's sobs died down and she requested for her snuff together with a shot of her seaman's bottle of schnapps.