On Fathers Day…

Afia,
Today is Father’s Day….
Mother’s Day was last month….
I had no idea that it would affect me so much!
Maame spent the day out, and yoofi was in school, so I didn’t know what he was up to.
Every radio station was singing for mothers, praising wives, and lauding their efforts.
So I’m sending you a letter, Afia.
Your kids miss you.
I miss you!
For a long time, I haven’t eaten any kontomire stew…..
Cos no one makes it the way you do.
I don’t remember the last time I watched the evening news….
Because it would remind me so much of your incessant comments, as if any of the criminals could hear you.
I changed the bed, got a smaller one…. That way I don’t roll onto the cold side and wonder where you are.
Afia, would you come back if it were possible?
Would you come back and give Maame a reason to laugh the way she used to?
Would you come back and take away Yoofis moodiness the way only you knew how?
Would you come back and make me the happy man I used to be?
Maame told me once that the best gift I ever gave her and Yoofi was loving you.
It made me really happy…….
Yet I feel I could have done more…. Loved you better, taken you out more…. Cooked for you more often…. Danced with you…
I really miss you….
No one stays up to wait for me anymore.
I get back home to a dead silent house.
You were up waiting for me every night for close to thirteen years and I never once said thanks….
I took it for granted.
Afia…….
I know that today will be absolutely different without you. You’d have woken me up in the middle of the night, woken me up no matter how tired you were, and told me all the things you loved about me. All the things I’d done in the past year that made you or the kids happy.
‘And finally, Nana, you know I can never stop falling in love with your voice…’
I miss you Afia.
Two years without you.
Two long years….
Two long, cold years….
Cold and quiet years….

“And I know you’re smiling down on me from Heaven,
Like so many friends we’ve lost along the way….
And I know eventually we’ll be together, one sweet day!”