The Gospel of Matthew Chapter 9 vs.
9-13 tells us about the call of Matthew. We jump forward a few 100 years and
Matthew who was hitherto a tax collector…a public sinner…a scum of the earth
has risen to the status of an evangelist. He’s credited with writing the first
book of the New Testament. And all this because of one simple call, “Follow
Me”. Most of us may not experience such a brusque and unanticipated call (that
eventually turns your life upside-down and downside-up while giving it a
180-degree spin on all axes) but for those who do or who have, it is surely not
a sweet ordeal but in the end, it is worth it.
I was just in Primary 4, a
rambunctious bundle of energy. I was the noisiest, most-outspoken and
most-intelligent pupil in the class but somehow i never got to be class-prefect
(in retrospect, I can see that back then my noise-making needed control and
making me class prefect will be tantamount to setting a rat to guard a kettle
of fish). So break time had just ended and we had come back into class,
sweating and I was still shrilling in that my beautifully annoying prepubescent
treble (which my mum swears you could hear within a 1-mile radius). A teacher
was doing post-break inspection of the classes but we didn’t know that this
particular sister had been standing quietly by the window, watching the court of
noisemakers which I was holding. So when she entered the class, a hush fell
over all of us. We made moves to greet her but she waved it away. It was the
school administrator and she was relatively new. (Ok let’s deviate a little. In
the primary school I attended, my surname was to be reckoned with because the 4
of us-siblings had a penchant for breaking records be it academic and/or
disciplinary records and we literally knew all the members of staff). Since she
was new, she wouldn’t know I was the ring-leader of the class noise-makers. So
I sat astutely in my sit, pulled out a novel from my school bag and was reading
it like the good pupil I should be. I was surprised when her shadow fell over
my desk. My heart nearly stopped when she told me to get up and come out to the
front of the class. I was never good at lying so I didn’t even bother. My heart
was slamming because I felt for sure that my parents would hear of my
noise-making today. I almost peed in my pants when she called me by name. Jesus
Christ! How did this woman know me? I mean I knew she was the school
administrator but she wasn’t a teacher so she shouldn’t even know of my academic
prowess or ADHD. And then I heard the words every pupil or student who has been
unruly hates till today, “follow me to my office”.
I got to her office with my heart
in my hand. She unlocked her office and said the three words that changed my
life, “Please sit down”. It wasn’t a sarcastic form of politeness. It was real
and genuine. And then she smiled at me and said that she knows all about me and
my noise-making but I shouldn’t worry that I wasn’t hear for discipline.
However, she had a different punishment in stock for me. I was to come to her
office every day during break for the remainder of the term. At that point, I
felt I had been done a great wrong. How can all my break periods just go
because I was unruly for a few minutes? I wanted to complain but she raised her
hand and shushed me as she made notes in I what I presumed to be “THE BLACK BOOK”.
A knock was heard on her door and two other pupils from an older class entered
her office. I felt these two had been unruly and will be doing time with me so
I smiled to myself. She welcomed them warmly and asked if they knew me, and
yeah they did know me or my elder sister…they knew the family. And I knew them
too. At this juncture, she reiterated what she earlier said to me and they
weren’t fazed. I was still at a loss as to how they weren’t remotely nonplussed
by what I considered very disturbing news when she told us that we had been
chosen to represent the school in a quiz competition. If we won, we will go on
to regionals and if we win the regionals, we’ll go on to state. That was when
it made sense to me. I had been hand-picked way before she even came to my
class. I don’t know how I was chosen. I don’t know who even chose me but all I
know was that she asked me to follow her and I did. Out of fear or out of a
sense of duty I can’t say but what I can say is that I followed her and my life
turned around.
The quiz we were to prepare for
wasn’t a run-of-the-mill kind of quiz. It didn’t broach contemporary Primary
School curriculum of Maths, English and General Knowledge. It was a quiz on the
Holy Childhood Association which prior to then, I had only heard about from my
sister who participated in the same quiz the previous year. The preparations
weren’t easy. There were tonnes of bible passages to be memorized and
discussed, canon laws to be learnt and dissected, handbooks to be studied and
regular schoolwork to be covered. Within the space of two weeks, we had
established a schedule: once it was 10:30am (break time) we would report for
duty and remain there till 2pm. All the hard work paid off in no distant time
as we worn the quiz, up to the state level. But that’s not the point of this
story. Even after the competitions ended, I remained friends with her and once
in a while still dropped by her office to say "hi" and have a treat of whatever
she was having for tea-break or lunch.
For 6-8weeeks I worked with the
kindest of women and the softest spoken of them all. She was a disciplinarian
no doubt but had an amazing sense of humour that was contagious. She couldn’t
bear a grudge, no not her and she had this regal air about her that made you
want to please her. She did have a witty tongue and once or twice I did see her
ticked off (never saw her angry) her self-control was phenomenal, a lady in the
real sense of the word. In that short while, I learnt a lot about my catholic
faith, the doctrine of the church, the bible and interpersonal relationship. I
learnt to control my temper even though my ADHD didn’t get better. A simple
“follow me” much like Jesus told St Matthew opened my young eyes to things I
never bothered about before and made me want to do better.
Press and Readers Club, Drama
Club were some of the healthier activities this dear lady encouraged me to
channel my energies towards. She believed that break time was just a disaster
waiting to befall me with my ADHD and so rather than playing (and getting
injured or dirty or worse), I can actually do better things with my time. In
the Press and Readers Club, you borrow a book from her, read it and then write
a report about it. Each report was supposed to be ready exactly a week after
borrowing the book but that was just too long a time for me. So I was borrowing
one book and then when I’m done with, I’d exchange with maybe two other people
who read as fast as myself but we’ll still hand in one report. Who was I,
thinking I could fool her? She knew what I was doing but ignored me
nevertheless, as long as the books weren’t getting torn. As the school year
drew to a close, she invited me and my brother and some other people to her
office and gave us portions of the bible to study over the holidays, in
preparation for next year’s competition.
A new school year, a new class,
new friends’ maybe? With Christmas at the end of the 1st term, this
lovely lady thought it wise to teach us the true Christmas story and how it all
started…from the fall of man. She wrote a drama that chronicled all the
prophecies about the messiah the result was a star-studded drama spanning
centuries up until the very 1st Christmas night. People volunteered
to be in the play and she made sure we paid extra attention to our costume. It
was really lovely. When time came for the quiz, it wasn’t as gruelling for me
as I had experienced it the previous year but if I had only read the bible
passages she gave me, it might have been a walk in the park. Well sue me! I was
just in primary 5. I barely knew what my priorities were talking more of
setting them straight. In the course of
our preparations, one of us dropped out because he lost the dad. She made sure
we were super-nice and her herself caught a cold that she couldn’t just shake
off. I remember her saying she had sinusitis. Anyway, we went for the quiz and
we won again but lost at state level. She told us to cheer up, that we did our
best and so we did.
I left primary school and entered
secondary school. I still did go to visit her when I got a chance. So one
afternoon, I come back from school and my younger brother tells me to guess
what. In no mood for no guessing game, I tell him some choice words. He then
announces to us that the sweet kind lady who had touched all our lives had
passed away. Who knew she had been battling with cancer all this while? It was
a very sad moment in our lives especially for my mum because I don’t think
there’s been another soul who understood her boys’ like this woman did.
Thankfully, my brother attended her burial and paid his last respect on behalf
of our family to this sweet lady.
It’s been more than 15years since
I met Rev. Sr. Uche Jane Okwuosa but the 2years I knew her changed my life and
I’m certain she’s making ridiculously funny faces at us from her celestial
perch and urging us all to do better. R.I.P dear friend.
