Celebrating A Mother At 70

OLUSEGUN OLUWOLE

Happy 70th birthday to my beautiful Mother, Mrs Abigail Oluwafunmilayo Oluwole (Nee Jegede) as you turn 70th today. I can only wish you long life in good health and many more years to come in Christ mighty name. Amen.

Mother, I just want to use this opportunity to say a big thank you for all the love and support you have been given me and my siblings since we were born.

Your husband, who was my father. died over 30 years ago at a young age of 45 and you were 42, you put your life on the line for us to survive as a good mother would do.

You sacrificed a lot with the little resources God has given you for me and my siblings to have good education and good life.

You could have chosen an option to remarry because you were still very young and vibrant when you lost your husband over 30 years ago but you never did.

You sacrificed everything in your possession for us to have good education.

I cannot forget in a hurry in the early ’90s when things were so hard for us to the extent that we had to work in a scrapyard company to earn our daily bread.

You told me that you would rather do this to make a living than sleeping with different men for money.

You believed in hard work and in the course of your struggling, God smiled at you, you got a contract Chef job with Mobil Oil in Ajah, Lagos.

You would wake up as early as 4 am in other not to miss the staff bus. You en route Agege to Ajah every day for over 10 years before you retired in early 2000.

Most times when you were caught up in traffic, you could get home around 10 pm, a home with no electricity, and you would have to wake up early again the next day to prepare for another day work tired.

I forgot to mention that we were living in a ‘face me and slap you’ environment where we shared a toilet and bathroom with our co-tenants; a very noisy compound, yet you would wake up early to set up for another day work.

Throughout your days in Mobil, you never called in sick for one day, you were so strong and hardworking.
Maybe that is where I tapped the little energy of perseverance I had from you.

In those years, you won the Best Staff of the Year award in Mobil continuously because you were very hardworking, punctual, diligent and loved by all your colleagues and co-workers.

How can I forget in a hurry how you tried all your possible best for me to get a job in Mobil Oil as a contract staff, but it never worked out because all your bosses were recycling their family members into the organisation.

Fortunately, God made it possible for me to get a job as an Electrical Engineer with Diageo in the early 2000 and thereafter by providence I moved to the United Kingdom in 2005.

Mother, you have done so much for me that I cannot tell it all in this piece of writing.

I can’t wait to come home to celebrate you after the lockdown because that is the least I could do to appreciate all your efforts on me and my siblings.

My prayer today is that God Almighty should give you sound health so that you can see and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

This is just to let you know that if there is anything call incarnation in another world, I will want you to be my mother again and again.

On behalf of myself, my siblings and your grandchildren. we want to say THANK YOU and we shall forever remain grateful for everything you have done for the glory of your make, the Almighty God.
Happy Birthday, 🎁 Mama.

.With lots of Love from your children – Olusegun, Olukayode and Olaide.