MEMORIES OF A PERFECT NEIGHBOUR
I could still remember when I was growing up as a girl child, my mum was a civil servant while my dad was a working in a company as a manager but was sacked when I was five and this really shook the financial stability of the family. We lived in a rented two bedroom apartment in a very fine area in Ota then but when my dad was sacked, he could only get a job as a real estate agent and he only gets big deals once in a blue moon so due to the financial status my parents could only afford a rented face-me-I-slap-you apartment.
The name I just mentioned will sound so funny and you will be wondering what that means if you aren't a Nigerian, it simple means a big house consisting of different apartments (single room or a room and parlour) constructed in a way that the doors of all the rooms face eachother with just a passage in between, with shared bathroom and toilets just like a barrack but the rooms were not as much as a barrack, it was just eight apartments that is eight different tenants but our landlord lives in a different apartment but still in the compound.
Our landlord was a middle aged man who has plenty wives and children, he was very noisy, brutal and rude, he doesn't joke with his money at all. We had neighbours from different tribes but there was one particular neighbour who my family still reckons with till today, her name is Mummy Joy.
Mummy Joy is a young woman from Benue State in Nigeria, she came to Ogun State because she got married to a police man who brought her down to where duty transferred him to, she has a baby girl named Joy, that's why we call her "Mummy Joy". This woman was a very lively, accommodating and sweet woman, although we don't understand her language but we communicate in English, her and my mum were inseparable they discuss about anything and even pray together, she makes my hair too and sometimes I play in their room till I get tired and fall asleep.
I could still remember the day my dad was terribly sick and my mum had to spend days in the hospital with him. However this woman took me in as her own, she would bath for me, clothe me, give me food to eat and even took me to school throughout the times my mum wasn't around, she even makes my hair for me so that I won't look shabby in school, she practically just adopted me for those times and took care of me like her own, sometimes she will play songs sang in their dialect and dance with me so that I won't feel sad that my mum isn't around. Although my dad later passed on and we moved away from the house but those times were golden to me and my family, they are still fresh in my memory that I would never forget.
People say no one is perfect but I think Mummy Joy was just a perfect neighbour for my family as at that time because only God knows who would have taken care of me in those perilous times. Although we have been having different wonderful neighbours after that time but I still cherish Mummy Joy more in heart till today and I pray that God would grant her good reward for her labour of love 🥰. A good neighbour is a gift from God.
Thank you so much for staying this far, hope you had a good read with me, see you again next time 🤗