The Anniversary" - Daddy @ 61

I wonder what you will tell your father who retired last year at 60 and still lives in an uncompleted house.

That's the story of my father. He is 61 years this year and I just want to share a few things i have noticed about him.

My name is Kwame and i am 33 years old.
My father apart from his almost 40 years of work as a civil servant is also the chief of my village. A chief in the village can be compared to a priest in a seminary. They both are powerful, respected and looked up to.

My father lives in a family house. This house was built by his father over 61 years ago. The part of the house where he resides with his wife has electricity and water flowing all day all year..

He even enjoys air-conditioning unlike the other parts of the house where the rest of the family lives.

Infact, the rest of the house can't be compared in anyway to where he lives. Some rooms are fortunate to have their floors cemented and others have electricity. Others used plywoods as window covers and others have louvers. No room in the ten (10) bedroom house is completely built. You can't have it all.

Every Easter, my father will organise a family reunion for all of us to return home to make merry. Chiefs from other villages grace these ocassions every year.

We call it "The Anniversary". At 33, the anniversary become more insignificant to me.

First of all, every child my father has is tasked to contribute a particular amount towards the celebrations. My father doesn't care who can afford it and who can't. Year after year this ritual as it has become continues with and none of us bold enough to complain to him the discomfort he is causing us. After all, he is the village chief and he needs to show off to the rest of the villagers that he has a united and a well to do family. This is sad.

Every month every year, we contribute money towards the finishing of the house. At easter, we come home to see my father only renovating his part of the house breaking and rebuilding things that doesn't really need working on.

He tells everybody he doesn't need money but secretly goes to the bank to solicit for loans and then levy the villagers to pay. Honestly i don't know what he uses the loans for because he hardly support our education fully. My younger brother is in the middle school and I am responsible for his upkeep. Because my mother is a trained nurse, she became automatically the "family doctor". She is in charge of the self diagnostic Healthcare of the family while she and my father travels out of town to the big city to the big hospitals for medical attention to cheers from the villagers.

Our Chief is back. Our Father is Healed.
It's a shame. It's a shame that at 61, he can't be proud of a single achievement. He couldn't even build his own house not to mention the family house which he inherited and left to rot. Aside the debt we will pay for a long time, we will also have to struggle each year to raise funds for "The Anniversary" where his friends from neighboring vilages come singing praises at him.

My father has failed as a man. Life they say begins at 40 but his hasn't yet started after retirement from civil service at 60.

I love my father and will wish he stops the hypocrisy. I wish he stop the borrowing and at least complete the building of the family house. Yes we will support him as obedient children but we trust him to use the money to do what he promised to do with it. We don't really care about the anniversary because it doesn't potray the real us.

And finally, we will want him to build a fense around the house to prevent the constant harassment from strange men and women and sometimes animals.

Happy Birthday Daddy, I Love you.
Writer: Honour Agbemor-Flint
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