S4, Account 2: Claude
This child is too stubborn. If she was my own, she would have been forced to think of marriage as soon as she graduated. Look where her parents filling her head with ambition and endless possibilities has got them — I warned them! She is their only child and the way she is behaving, it’s like she does not want them to have a grandchild while they are alive. What a shame! What was the point of being so hard on her with regards to her education? Fighting over the difference between Bs and As. To what end? Now she has grown wings and thinks she should be seated next to God. I’ve told her, without a husband or a child, my dear, you are only half complete.
A woman’s primary education, most important mission, is to cater to her husband and children. I am the successful mother of two boys, one girl, and 4 grandchildren. Nobody can tell me that I have not accomplished what God sent me here to do. My son Jean-Pierre is in Belgium with his wife and has 2 children — a boy & a girl, Fabien is in America and has one boy with some woman, and my daughter Chancelle has a girl with her husband and lives in the North. I do wish I could see my children and grandchildren more, there has been quite a few cancelled plans, but I know that if they could spend more time with me, they would. Anyway, there’s FaceTime now so that helps me keep in touch. They are all quite busy so I don’t speak to them as often as I’d like, but I love it when I do. I think they would all agree that I have been the best mother. My husband when he is here (he spends half the year in our homeland Congo) always says “Claude you have always been there for us. A more faithful wife and mother no-one could find”. Is that not the stuff that just makes your heart burst with warmth? It makes up for every time I felt lonely and tired bringing up our children, missing him dearly. I know he has been working to provide a better life for us. Aside from my sister, I know very few of my friends and peers still with their husbands, and that is testament to our great marriages quite frankly.
This is why I cannot understand the lazy attitude of Noelle in finding a life partner. Does she think she can do life by herself? What about children? When I see her on Sundays sitting in the pews of the same church as I and her family, I always look at her from the side of my eye, wondering at what point will God send the lightning I have been praying for, to strike her and rearrange her senses and priorities. Plenty of good-looking, eligible bachelors in our church. Pascal is only a few years older than her, extremely handsome and literally adores the ground she walks on. In fact it’s got to the point it’s so obvious to everyone, it’s almost a little uncomfortable to watch how she more or less ignores him entirely. The audacity of her! She will not be young forever. Her body will slip away faster than a marble down a mountain, and the likes of not even old Mr Kalenga always looking for a new wife (God help and forgive him) will give her even a first look.
That’s my everlasting problem with this generation and I always say it to Mrs Adeniyi and Mrs Lusamba at church; they are so impudent. Look at Valentina who also thought she was too good for the young men we have, look how she got pregnant with the child of one of these street men these young girls love these days. As soon as he saw her belly swell, the fool vanished into thin air, and now she attends church in a cloud of misery and permanently swollen eyes, no doubt oppressed with thoughts on how she will bring this child up alone. She embarrassed herself and brought shame to her family. Imagine becoming a liability unnecessarily when you could have had a good marriage? Any child brought up in the absence of its father is doomed. And that’s completely her fault.
I must speak to Mamadou and Seraphin again. This nonsense with Noelle has gone on long enough. Not everyone is going to heaven, so better to see these grandchildren in this realm, than wish upon a star for a meeting in the next where it won’t even matter.
Originally posted: November 29, 2021