Bidding a Friend Farewell

Who was your best childhood friend? Mine was a neighbour's kid named Stephen Kamau. He calls himself Steve Wanyee on Facebook, and that's his actual name which I didn't know back in the '90s when we bonded while grazing cattle on a piece of land my father bought in 1993. He was a true friend, in every sense of the word.

I recall most fondly two school holidays in the '90s when Steve Wanyee and I spent most of our daytime together on that piece of land. The first was in December 1993 when he regularly joined me and my brothers Paddy and Symo as we grazed cattle.

Perhaps to keep ourselves from getting bored as the cattle feasted on their favourite meal (grass!), we built dainty huts using the tall grass that flourished on the land. Paddy, the eldest member of the gang, called the shots. He instructed us which grass to cut and then used it to build the huts.

It must have been then that Paddy began developing the leadership skills that compelled Dr. Geoffrey W. Griffin, the founder of Starehe Boys' Centre, to appoint him a decade later as the captain of a dormitory in the school in those days when Starehe was one of the best high schools in Kenya.

The other holiday I fondly recall bonding with Steve Wanyee was the one in April 1997. Those of us who were alive and kicking back then remember that to be the year when the witty, beautiful and charismatic Princess Diana perished in a road accident somewhere in Europe.

Like in December 1993, we also grazed cattle together during that April holiday. But I can't recall Paddy being part of the gang; maybe he realized he was too old to hang out with such little kids as Steve Wanyee, Symo and I.

One evening over that holiday, I accompanied Steve Wanyee to their home which is a stone's throw away from where we grazed cattle. While there, we passed by a clothes line that had underwear hang on it. Steve Wanyee disclosed to me that the undies belonged to one of his elder sisters, and when he noted my eyes fixed on them, he cautioned me in Kikuyu, "Don't look at them for too long!"

That was vintage us in the '90s. We are still friends with Steve Wanyee who occasionally likes my blog stories. But we no longer spend time together which was why he recently slowed down a sedan he was driving to a halt and greeted me. He then requested me to pay him a visit one of these days.

Guess what! As I was doing something enjoyable in my room yesterday evening, Mum called out my name and asked me in Kikuyu, "Do you know Muchene?"

"Yes, that's [Steve Wanyee's] dad," I replied, alarmed at what she would say next.

Then she blurted out what I expected, "He's dead!"

Hearing such sad news set me thinking about death. All I can now say is that I have agreed with the great novelist Charles Dickens that life is a series of partings. Steve Wanyee's dad has parted us and I wonder who's next in my circle of friends.

For the time being, I will pay Steve Wanyee a visit some time this week, God willing and weather permitting, to condole with him as he prepares to bid farewell to his father. Adieu!