Holy Ghost College Owerri 75th Old Boys Reunion: My widowed mother funded my attendance by public transport
By Old Boy
It is 8.00 in the morning of Monday, 20th May, 2024 and I am sitting down in my bedroom, looking at a picture of myself and some Old Boys, on my phone. This picture was taken at the just concluded 75th Reunion activities of the Old Boys of Holy Ghost College Owerri, which commenced on Thursday the 16th and ended on Sunday, the 19th of this May, 2024.
Holy Ghost College Owerri is one of the most prestigious public schools originally set up in the pre-independence Eastern Region by the Catholic Mission. It is worth mentioning that among the well known Old Boys who graced the occasion was Charles Oputa (aka Charlie Boy, aka Area Father).
Looking at me in the picture mentioned above, and indeed throughout the occasion, you might classify me among the very successful Old Boys in attendance. But appearance, as the saying goes, could be very deceptive.
I will be 60 years old in a couple of years from today and no matter how fit I may look, the age is real. No one in the gathering had any way of knowing that my widowed mother had to fund my attendance by public transport for the two days that I showed up. Nor could anyone tell that my coming down to the family house in Owerri for a short while for this Reunion, and some other personal matters, could not have been possible if she was not still around to feed me.
At this very moment, I can no longer sustain even myself, let alone my wife and the three kids I left at my base town to travel down to Owerri. My first child, an undergraduate, may not be going back for the school’s compulsory summer classes come the end of this May, if I don’t pay the full tuition in a few days from now. My second child, who is among the 0.5 per cent of candidates with grades well above 300 in the recently released JAMB exams, is taking the ongoing WAEC exams under a lot of apprehension, fearing that daddy might not be able to afford the school fees of a Federal University come September this year. My youngest child, a very bright SS2 student, runs the risk of being stopped from further classes if I don’t come up with atleast a part of the current 3rd term fees also before the end of this May.
Unfortunately for me, I am still a tenant in my base city and have only paid half of my current year’s rent. The landlord will come calling by the end of this June, and it will not be funny at all if his money is not ready by that time. My business which was going down steadily over many years is now completely in shambles. Trying to prop things up over those past years, I gradually stripped myself of all my valuable assets and now have nothing left to throw in. Sustaining my family has become a daily ‘project’ now and life has really become nightmarish.
Still sitting here in the Owerri family house bedroom on a Monday morning, I’m wondering what to do to save my life from crashing in the next coming days. If anything happens, what becomes of my family?