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Fadzayi Maposah, Correspondent
Where I work these days, I am exposed to many facets of life.
Each day I am reminded never to take anything for granted. The good times are to be enjoyed and memories created.
Live each day to the fullest and appreciate each sunrise and sunset. None of these moments are guaranteed.
The road near the entrance to my current workplace is always a hive of activity.
There are people going up and others going down that road. At times I just stand and observe what takes place along that road.
Some women just take their material wraps and spread them by the roadside and sit.
People sit for different reasons.
Others sit because they just need to take a break. You can tell that it is a well-deserved break by the way they gaze into open space.
With time, some want to really rest so they move from sitting down to lying down.
Some people sit down to eat. Others stand by the wayside and make calls. The calls vary.
Some are to convey good news, others are questions to ask how far the other individual is because the time available is limited and they need to meet soonest.
Others are requests for things that are needed. All calls seem to be in emergency mode.
At times I do not get to hear what is being said, the urgency is conveyed through body language.
People go through a lot for others.
Have you seen someone advanced in years running, pushing themselves so that they are not too late?
Timelines are important at some institutions such that when the time is up, there is no negotiation.
Have you tried getting into a bank as they are closing, one almost wishes that they were a fly and could just land into a space that had become closed?
At that moment when you are pleading with the security personnel to get in, it is because you are pressed for time and there is something that you have to do.
At times, the people that we do things for do not consider it important and at times they feel entitled. It is only when the one who does things for you is no longer there that you value what they did for you.
Early this week, I met a young man who was excited.
When he said, “Good morning,” I felt he had left something still on his lips.
So I encouraged him with small talk, mentioning that the weather was better as compared to last week. He agreed and then quickly added that he really could not feel whether it was hot or cold. That drew my attention.
So I asked him why he was not bothered by the weather.
With my grey hair, it easy for me to become an instant mother! I meet someone and the next moment I am called ‘Mother’.
I am a mother to many, in buses, commuter omnibuses, at the market stall, supermarket and everywhere I go. I am thankful for the grey hair and the instant elevation it brings.
Back to my story, with a big smile on his face, the young man told me that he was on his way to the hospital to see my little sister.
The riddle initially got me lost as I wondered which of my sisters was in hospital and, how were the two of us related. Then it dawned on me. The riddle meant that he had been blessed with a baby girl.
I congratulated him.
Within moments, I was being told that he was so happy with the birth of his daughter and that in his backpack he had things that his wife had requested that he bring.
He assured me without being asked that he would do his best to be a good father to his daughter. I was touched. I watched him walk away energetically to be with his daughter. How I wish that all fathers could have such love and commitment to their families.
As I walked to the entrance to my workplace, I went past a man close in age to the one that I had been talking to.
He was on the phone, informing the one on the other side that his father had passed away and that he would require that person’s support.
My heart that had been bubbling because of good news was now broken as I realised that young man had lost his father.
The irony was a lot. One road. Yet the stories had different endings.
One was walking with a bubbly stride while the other was broken and walked with a limp.
For the two young men, the day had started differently. One was celebrating an addition while the other was mourning a loss.
In life we walk the same road and yet the stories that we can tell are so different.
It is not our place to judge why someone walks the way that they do because we do not know their story.
I thought about the two young men and their different stories later in the week when I saw one young woman close to throwing up as she walked on the same road that the two young men had walked.
Two women my age commented that she was most probably pregnant.
I told myself that these women were unrecognised judges that are also unpaid by the Judicial Services Commission!
I waited for the girl by the fence and reached out to her gently. She was struggling with severe period pains but had been assigned to check on a relative.
Pregnancy and menstruation are cousins but they are different.
Symptoms for the conditions can be the same, yet pregnancy is not menstruation.
They are people on the same road but having different stories. Either condition can bring smiles or pain. Allow people to walk their journeys!
Online Reporter