Watermelon and Pineapples

One of Aunty Iyefu and I's last memories was on the day that we got news of Aunty Oikowo's death. It was not unexpected; she'd been gravely ill for a while. The word got to us in Iga late that morning. I noticed when we had lunch that Aunty Iyefu didn't have any. After we left the dining table, I went to her in the room we refer to as 'the green sitting room' and asked why she hadn't had any lunch. I asked her, half in jest, to lighten the somber mood if she was mourning Aunty Oikowo. She laughed and said 'No-oo!' in that way that she had, 'it wasn't the reason.'

So I asked if there were something else she would like to eat, and she said maybe fruits if I could get pineapples. Later that day, I went to Adoka and looked around for fruits, but I was only able to get watermelon. It was already late in the evening when I returned, so I didn't bother her again. The following morning after I had my breakfast, I went to her in the main sitting room and told her that I hadn't been able to get pineapples the day before, but I got her watermelon. Her face lit up, and she said 'Oh really?!' and I said 'Yeah.' So she said, 'THANK YOU, GOD BLESS YOU!' Then she went on to have the watermelon for breakfast.

Exactly a week after Aunty Oikowo's death, Aunty Iyefu died. I kept on remembering the way she had said, 'THANK YOU, GOD BLESS YOU!' It kept reverberating; it struck me, sent chills running down my spine. She'd emphasized it so, stressed it so hard that I could almost feel the imprint. In the light of her death, the word premonition kept appearing in my mind, uninvited but insistent. I asked myself if the magnitude of the gratitude she showed was just for the watermelon I bought for her or something else; thank you for everything I'd ever done for her?

She said it almost as if to a kind stranger, going out of their way to help her. But I could only understand it this way after her death, precisely a week later. She lives on in my heart and her memories remain evergreen.