Mama Priscilla Aswani: 1945-2015. She touched many lives while she lived. She has left behind an admirable legacy.
Last week I attended a funeral that has really made to think a lot about my life here on earth. The deceased person’s life has really challenged my perspective on life. The irony is that I never met the deceased or knew her before her death. The deceased was mum and grandmother to my friends, Godwin Aswani and George Shimanyula respectively. She passed away after falling sick and being in hospital for close to one month. She was in Intensive Care Unit for most of the time she was in hospital. Even though I never met her in person, I met Mama Priscilla through the people who had interacted with her and the people whose lives she impacted in her 70 years on this earth. According to what I heard from those who spoke during her funeral service at the All Saints Cathedral and those who spoke at her home in Lugari, Kakamega County in Western Kenya, and this woman was so big-hearted. Dorothy is one of the ladies whose lives she touched. Her guardian and parents died in a span of three years. She had nowhere to go and no one to live with in the city. As many of you might be aware, taking in an extra child is not something that many parents would want to do. Besides the financial obligations, there are also the other socio-psychological dynamics that come into play. This would have been even more complicated considering that Dorothy comes from a totally different tribe from that of Mama Priscilla. Dorothy is a Kisii while Mama Priscilla was a Luhya by tribe. For non-Kenyans, this may not be an issue, but for a Kenyan, that fact alone says a lot. But Mama Priscilla took Dorothy in and she became part of her household. Not that she was a rich woman. No, no. Mama Priscilla first worked at Alliance Girls High School, a public institution, before leaving to join the City Council of Nairobi. She was therefore not a rich woman, materially. And more than that, she had her own five children that she had to take care of after the death of her husband some 20 years ago. Besides Dorothy, there were nephews and nieces that Mama Priscilla was taking care of. But Mama Priscilla was rich in her own way…Think of the many children out there without parents. Who ever cares about them? Our society is still averse to adoption. Yet Mama Priscilla understood that a young girl like Dorothy needed a shoulder to lean on and a family to support and protect her. Being young and alone meant that she was vulnerable and could easily fall prey to the squirms of people with bad motives. Dorothy is now of age. She is out of college and she is also working. She was there to say her final goodbye to the woman who took her in when society had given up on her. Priscilla’s is the only family that she knows of as her family. Dorothy’s is just one of the many lives that Mama Priscilla touched. The gate-man at the hospital where she was taken before her death said that Priscilla was one of the patients he had seen receiving the highest number of visitors ever since he began working in the hospital. This speaks a lot. When she died, there was a huge medical bill (millions of shillings) to be cleared at the hospital. Listening to my friend, it was amazing how the bill was slashed down within a week by well-wishers who kept sending money through the pay-bill number that was created for that purpose. Normally in Kenya, where majority of people do not have medical insurance, such a huge bill would take months to clear. During her funeral service in Nairobi and the burial service at home, I did not witness the kind of emotions and tears that Africans are known for. Instead, there was a reflective mood and celebration of a life well-lived. There were no tears of regret. This takes me back where I started: what kind of legacy will you leave behind when you leave this earth? Will it be a legacy of a life lived for self, or a life lived for others? Mama Priscilla did not leave behind lots of property. But she has left behind a legacy of a good name and a family that is united and at peace with the fact that their mother is no more. Like Mama Priscilla, I choose to live a life that will impact others.
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