Online Reporter
Sharuko On Saturday
WITHIN a short space of three years, I lost just about everything that is dear to me – my lovely daughter Mimi and my beautiful wife Florence.
Sandwiched between these two tragic events, I had a white wedding, with my marriage being sealed by a holy stamp of approval by Roman Catholic priest, Father Karombo.
Seven years after my wife died, when her brave battle against breast cancer finally came to an end one morning at the Avenues Clinic, I haven’t yet recovered from that double blow.
I have cursed fate and at some point I even foolishly doubted the existence of God.
But, with time I came back to my senses and now I always thank God The Almighty for the time he gave me to create and enjoy all those golden moments with my wife and daughter.
In such circumstances, we all need support from family, friends and just about everyone else and it’s something that I received in tonnes.
The days were long, the nights were even longer and there were moments where I would just lock myself in my bedroom, stare onto the ceiling and spend hours just doing that.
I now have my boys to cling to, they are growing up, the youngest is in university in India and will be graduating soon.
They are all football fans, which is natural, all of them are Manchester United supporters, which is obvious, but their affiliations change on the domestic scene.
Two are CAPS United fans, one is a Highlanders fan and the other is a Dynamos fan, just like his late sister.
The one in India has been asking me a lot of questions about Scottland and asked me to send him their jersey, which I did, and whether that’s a looming disconnection from his CAPS base, only time will tell.
My late girl’s love affair with Dynamos was one she shared with Ronald Mujuru.
I didn’t know Ronald until the horrific accident which wiped out his family last week and, in an instant, left him all alone.
The loss of his wife and five kids, in that horror car crash along the Harare-Masvingo Highway, has touched all of us and united us, as a nation, to grieve as one.
This is a man who loved his family, no doubt about that, and you just need to go through his digital footprint on his social media platforms to see that.
For him it was a badge of honour to post photographs of his young family – whether it was a family outing or just his youngest boy kicking the ball around while dad was watching from close by – on his socials.
But, that’s all gone now and, at times, it’s hard, if not impossible, to try and understand why it had to happen this way.
And why it had to happen to you.
RIGHT NOW, WE ARE ALL RONALD MUJURU
We have all embraced Ronald, he has become our brother, our son, our grandson, our cousin, whatever.
He has become one of us, the guy next door, and when he smiled for the first time, since the tragedy, it made headlines.
That smile came when his colleagues at Dynamos, the club’s coaching staff, the players and fans, paid him a visit at his home in Harare, to offer their condolences.
Of course, it could not conceal the torture he is suffering within, the brutality of the suffering he has endured and the intensity of the pain which continues to rage inside him.
Ronald is employed by Stanbic Bank.
Ecobank, who are the flagship sponsors of champions Scottland, sent a senior executive, Mike Dengwani, to represent them during the burial ceremony of Ronald’s family.
This demonstrates how this tragedy has touched everyone – at community level, at football level and even at corporate level.
Ronald is old enough to know about Diego Maradona and the Hand of God.
He is also old enough to know that this was the Hand of the Devil.
Wicknell Chivayo came on board and, going through the feedback on his social media platform where he announced his “chema”, I have to say that the response from the majority of Zimbabweans has been very positive.
Of course, there will always be the odd people who see negativity, where others see positivity, but we shouldn’t waste our time on them.
It turns out Wicknell and Ronald are from the same rural area.
I’ve spent the last week digging deep, trying to understand if something so tragic has ever happened to a man, or woman, in this world, in a road accident.
With the help of Artificial Intelligence, I have found out that Ronald’s tragedy actually ranks higher than anything the world has ever seen.
You go through the searches and you find that those family tragedies on the road, which rank high, killed, at most, four people.
This alone shows that the tragedy that befell Ronald and his family was not only huge, but it was something that just doesn’t happen often.
What is important is how we will help Ronald to fight back from this tragedy.
It’s not an easy task, but we can’t give up on him.
That is why we are all Ronald Mujuru at this moment in time.
YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE, RON
One of the things I found comfort in during the years when personal tragedy hit me hard was to read about others who faced similar tragedies and how they coped.
I know that losing two members of my family, within a short space of time, is not the same as the tragedy that befell Ronald, who lost everyone.
But, the only thing I can do is try and provide a helping hand.
I would recommend that he reads about the story of a Canadian man called Marc Woerlen.
In November 2004, Marc went on a business trip and a fire engulfed his home in Pelham, Ontario, killing his entire family of eight.
There is a powerful video, which is available online on the ActiveChristianity website, in which Marc shares details of how he was able to deal with this tragedy.
It’s dubbed “Keeping Faith In God In The Face Of Tragedy”.
“It can be easy to question where God is when tragedy strikes,” notes the ActiveChristianity website in their introduction of the interview.
“But Marc clung to his faith in God and God’s Word and today we meet a man grounded in unshakable faith.
“How did he pull through in those darkest days, what gave him strength to overcome and keep going after his entire life had been swept out from under him.
“What would he say to someone who needed encouragement in the midst of their own tragedy?”
Listen to the interview, Ronald, because it has the potential of helping you deal with your grief brother.
People react differently, but what can’t be questioned is that such tragedies have a massive impact on those who live to deal with its consequences.
In China, a 90-year-old man has been cycling around the country for the past three decades, as a way of trying to heal, and find a reason to keep living, after a devastating series of tragedies wiped out his family.
Zhang Zhongyi’s son, daughter-in-law and eight-year-old grandson died in an accident and his wife, unable to cope with this tragedy, died the following year.
Zhang abandoned his home and took to the road, hoping that cycling across China would help him cope with his loss, and he has been on the road since.
“I have to let go of the past,” he said. “Now, I want to spend the rest of my life travelling.”
According to the South China Post, he started with a bicycle and then turned into a tricycle, as he grew older, and he has travelled thousands of kilometres across Xinjiang, Gansu, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian.
On March 10, 2019, Paul Njoroge woke up to the news that his wife, three children and mother-in-law had died when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 Max 8 plane, came down shortly after take-off in Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board.
“I stay up nights thinking of the horror that they must have endured,” Njoroge, a Kenyan, told parliamentarians.
He was probably speaking on behalf of Ronald Mujuru, too.
To God Be The Glory
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle.
Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!
Khamaldinhoooooooooooo!
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