Mum: Forever My Best Friend

Mum was a shopkeeper in Kiserian Town when I was becoming old enough to remember things. Hers was a modest shop where she sold household items and formed lasting friendships.

The first time I walked to her shop on my own, she was so proud of me that she enthused about it when she came home that day. It's like I had climbed Mt. Everest, that feather in Edmund Hillary's cap.

We became so close, Mum and I. She liked taking me along, sometimes to check on a relative who was admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital, sometimes to the homes of our neighbors.

Once when we went to check on that relative, I refused to eat something she gave me. And wow! Mum was so impressed that on our way back home, she promised to buy me something as a reward.

Then one evening when we were coming back from visiting a distant neighbor, I walked faster than she did. We reached home—and whoa!—she enthused about how brave I was, walking alone in the dark.

One Sunday in the year 2000, she took me to Kariokor Market in Nairobi, and showed me the place she used to work as a tailor before coming to Kiserian. It must have been a nostalgic visit for her.

Because I didn't like the way she seemed to get wind of every mischief I did, I asked her if she'd go back to that tailoring job. When she told me she would, I wished she'd really do so.

But she never left her shopkeeping job in Kiserian Town. Since she had a heart condition, I'd become anxious when I got to Kiserian from Nairobi and found her shop closed. Was she sick or something? I'd wonder.

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Also check out "A Wish Fulfilled".