Eulogy to Dad
Dr. Philbert Katalyeba was my moon, a star-crossed hero in my life. My comrade, my counselor, my father and the very cause of my being. You see this tall, beautiful me, credit to him, awesome genes there.
So our life together, our family life is an epic story and I probably will not be able to get to more than a sentence without disappearing into a puddle of tears, tears of joy of course. Our big, amazing family with fantastic people, who understood that sharing, is caring. Like the roots of a baobab tree, spreading deeper into the ground, Dad you rooted and grounded our family in love. Your love to me was an unending one.
The kind that stood the test of time and the kind that speaks the loudest even at his silence as he rests in God’s bosom, paradise, the new home he has been called into. Well, I am not going to talk about our family time with Dad or our day to day experience because I just do not have forever to do it.
Instead, I am going to talk about some mathematics. I am not a mathematician, Dad was not either but my mother Astrida, a queen of valor, she surely is one. However, Dad knew the Pythagoras theorem. Oh! You should have heard him say emphatically that a2+b2=c2. However, I do know that there are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There is .1, .112, .11112, .11111111112 and an infinite collection of many others. There is a bigger set of infinite numbers between 0 and 2 or between 0 and a million.
Therefore, some infinities are simply bigger than others.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
The question is, do I want more numbers than I am likely to get? God, do I wish that Daddy Phil had more days with us? Not at all God, I do not wish to question your will for my dad, neither your ways nor your plans. If anything, I have accepted that you are unfathomable, you decide what to do and you do just that in your time.
The honk and beep sounds like motor horns in my ears, loud screams of pain like I sat on an electrocution chair, clashing cymbals, I was crushing down, the feeling as though subjected to waterboarding when I heard the news that Dad was no more.
In great denial, while already swimming in the pool of my tears all I could think of was your love Dad. Your love is the only thing that I couldn’t see myself live without.
Dad, I cannot express how grateful I am for our little infinity of between 1991-2010.
You gave me a fatherly forever and the warmest love, greatest of them all, more than I deserved, within those numbered days, tirelessly and selflessly and for this Daddy, I am eternally grateful. You gave me the best education, taught me what was right from wrong and how to be a wright because you were a Jack of all trades. Taught me etiquette and made sure that my common sense acted common and that I am mentioned far from an ignoramus.
You stood by me and never forsook or dodged your responsibility regardless the thorns on the way. Same pair of shoes per year, for you so that I could have enough different pairs for sports, school, church and ceremonies. Thank you Dad for not only noticing the tear on my shoes but also the tears on my eyes.
A perfect paradigm you were Dad, always practical in your teachings. You walked the talk and marked my scripts with love and the correction to the point of a rod, you spared me not.
I can never finish eating the oranges and mangoes you left; year in year out, the sweetness lingers in my pallets. My sons and daughters will partake of them as well. What a man of honor you are Baba, a blessed and a wise man the Bible calls you as it says a good man leaves inheritance to his childrens’children.
I still have in mind and heart your love with Mummy, your Pet, what an epitome of love. Sweet memories you built together in your 34 years of marriage. The respect you had for her, supporting her and allowing her pursue her career, you were a strong and a secure man. I loved the way you answered visitors who came looking for the Headmistress of Mkoba School, after work hours. With your eyes staring right to their face you riposted, the one you seek doesn’t live here, but my Wife, Mrs. Phil is home! Family time was of paramount importance to you and never negotiated about it.
No thirst was left unquenched in a visitor’s throat. You had water for both strangers and friends. You were kindhearted, undoubtedly loving, and philosophical. Your honesty was on another level Dad, calling a spade a spade and to you, black was never off-white.
I know no grave that is big enough to burry you, to burry your legacy. Legends like you never die; they live on through what they created, for example me. Death can never steal you from me, you are just taking a siesta, only this time it’s a long one and I terribly miss you Dad.
Neema is a budding and enthusiastic poet