LWMB: Don’t Grow Old Mummy

I have grey hairs already. 

Anyways, it’s inherited. My mum got hers early and also a few of my sisters, so I’m not alone. 

Thing is, my son Ikem doesn’t want me to get old. He understood the concept of getting old last Christmas, we had travelled to the village to spend sometime with family. 

One cold harmattan morning, he was trying to race his grandma round the house as usual but she stopped and told him that she was now old.

He looked hard at her, then walked to me and asked if I would get old like Grandma. I answered in the affirmative and his face fell.

We tried to explain but he insisted that he didn’t want me to get old. We finally let it go.

Fast forward to last night, it’s time for bedtime prayers, he’s praying and he says: 

‘Mummy will not get old in Jesus name’.

I wasn’t quick to answer as that might mean that I would not live long. I tried to correct him.

‘Ikem, everybody will get old one day’, I said. 

In the dimly lit room, kneeling besides the bed, I could see his face fall as tears filled his eyes.

‘But Mummy, you promised me that time that you will not get old’ he said in a shaky voice.

I couldn’t remember making that promise but I wanted the prayer to go on since it was already past his bedtime. So I said okay, just go on and pray. 

He repeated the prayer and I said Amen, he was consoled, we finished up and slept off immediately.

What to do?

The Storytela