THE END
Beginnings are usually the start of an End.
Then some Ends are New Beginnings.
I can’t say for now, if I met Mona at a beginning or an End.
The last memory I had of Mona was April 2020.
I had been having a very hard time with Life and was at the edge of a breakdown. I was doing just fine with my mental stress and baggage that day, I had some items to purchase at the market. The sun wasn't exactly friendly, and I was so eager to get done just before my phone rang, it was Mona.
I normally would have ignored the call, just like I usually do whenever I’m facing a hard time. But I picked the call and I tried to sound casual. At the other end of the phone, I could hear him jittery and excited as he narrated the details of his new project. I wish i had the mental capacity to indulge him in his excitement.
Maybe it was my unusual silence that made him pause midway his jittery and asked “Are you okay?? What’s wrong, talk to me”.
No one had genuinely asked me “How I was” in the last 3 weeks. Hearing it now, pricked my heart and I couldn’t hold the tears in my eyes. So right there, in the middle of a rowdy market, I cried like a baby uncontrollably. i didn't bother about the weird stares i was given or the look of confusion and pity strangers had on their face towards me.
For about 2 Minutes, Mona didn’t interfere. When I felt better to talk, I said, “I’m in the market, I’ll call you when I get home”. He didn’t push, he replied “Take your time, I’m here for you”.
When I got home and settled in, I had already gotten a text from him. He was so keen on knowing what was wrong, so I called him and bared myself to him. There was always a great feeling of satisfaction talking to Mona. I told him how Mentally and Emotionally depressed I was. How life was so tough recently, I told him everything that brought heaviness in my heart.
He listened and never interrupted me for once. When I was done talking, he prayed with me and offered a little encouragement. I felt so much better after the call ended.
A few minutes after the call, I got a notification text from Mona. He sent pictures of some of the plants he had in his Garden and asked me to pick any. He called them the “Miracle Plants”. I jokingly asked him to send all of them because I needed a huge miracle in my life. He replied with a laughing and red heart emoji.
That was the last time I heard from Mona.
A few days after our last conversation, I stumbled on his picture on Instagram from a mutual friend of ours. It was a RIP photo.
Mona died on the evening I last talked to him.
I had never experienced pain from Loosing someone as I did with the knowledge of Mona’s demise. Not to sound insensitive but my grandmother passing away didn't hurt as much it did this time.
He wasn’t even family, but my heart was dampened with the loss. We met had only met on Instagram sometime in 2019 but his beneficence of friendship stretched to the deepest part of my heart.
He was like fresh Air, an absolute friend indeed. I had known him for barely a year, and we hadn’t even met for once, but it felt like I knew him much more. We had always made plans on meeting up but somehow, we never did. One time he joked about us getting to meet when he was much old, unattractive with grey hair on his chin.
Mona was always the first to reach out, he was so supportive, he encouraged me to go back to school, and he motivated me to start writing my first book. He always had a solution and was ready to fix anything. Mona was like a big brother I never had. We had so many plans!!!! I didn’t even get the “Miracle Plant” from him.
Dealing with his Loss subdued me in the reality of the END.
Everything with a beginning has an END.
But no one has the timeframe of the END.
It always comes like a thief in the night.
It either steals the memory of a beginning or brings a fresh start to a new beginning.
A few weeks after the news of Mona, I bought some of the plants he wanted me to have.
I put them in the corner of my room. Every time I watered them, I thought of Mona.
His memory was a beginning.
