The message on the Abia State Orientation Agency WhatsApp group platform announcing the untimely passage of Lady Sunshine by the Director-General, Hon. Godwin Adindu, was not only devastating but tragic. It caught everybody unaware and napping.
As the DG would always call her” our Orientation Lady”, I would always pull her legs ” Mama Orientation”, and in her usual manner she would give it back to me”Keshi you are looking for my trouble”, and I would reply” I’ll always look for your trouble”. That was Lady Sunshine for you- She’ll always return it to you,and that ends it. She had no rooms for grudges and malice.
I noticed Sunshine mid into the activities of the agency, but very early enough in the life of the agency. My argument is that she didn’t form part of the think tank that laid the architecture of the agency at Addrex Hotels, Ogbor-Hill.
But when she joined the activities of the agency later in the safe environment march and the stand up launch, like the golden fish, she had no hiding place.
She swept the streets well, like Martin Luther King Jr’s proverbial street sweeper, and was well noted. She was passionate and committed to her duties with the agency.
When I spoke with the highly devastated DG later in the night to confirm Lady Sunshine’s death, the ephemeral nature of human life was once again reinforced.
Like John Donne postulated”All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated… As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all… No man is an island, entire of itself… any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee,” but to all mankind.The death of Lady Sunshine reinforces Swami Sivananda position that”Life is a pilgrimage. The wise man does not rest by the roadside inns. He marches direct to the illimitable domain of eternal bliss, his ultimate destination”.It also reminds us that as pilgrims we are on transit, reinforcing the quote that”life is short but problems make it long”.
James 4:13-14 is a must read for every Christian and non- Christian alike who appreciates the ephemeral nature of life. It is an apt description of the transiency of life.”Go to now, ye that say, To day or morrow we will go into such city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain.Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishest away”.Verses 15 and 16 admonish humanity not to rely on their strength or wisdom”For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings:all such rejoicing is evil”.
The advent of the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown made members of the orientation agency team not to meet regularly as they should for months now because the lock down adjusted the programmes of institutions across the globe. But I can’t imagine that even after the lock down and whatever consequences the pandemic will induce, Lady Sunshine will not be seen again!
God is all knowing. He knows our end from the beginning.”I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’- Isaiah 46:10.
As Lady Sunshine sets out for her journey to eternity, let all members of the orientation agency join hands to bid her a resounding farewell”Warm summer sun, shine kindly here;Warm Southern wind, blow softly here, Green sod above, lie light,light…Good night,dear heart, good night, good night.- Olivia Susan Clemens (1866-1890). ( Daughter of Mark Twain).
Adieu Our Orientation Lady,adieu Mama Orientation!Sleep well!
