Steeming Community Contest |"At My Strongest Moment"

'Time heals', they say, but my heart still bleeds silly.

Yesterday makes it exactly 5 year that I lost my elder brother and my mentor. It hurts. I swear, it still hurts something awful. 😔

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May 10, 2016.

I was sick. My head was throbbing and my limbs were feeble. I was dying. Then I visited our family hospital. I was tested, found out it was typhoid and the doctor instructed that some bottles of injections be emptied into my bum.

Now dizzy, I rang my mum. She was upstairs in the same hospital. She came to the reception and took me to my brother. He was asleep, but his breathing was short and ragged. Mum said he had been sleeping since the previous day.

It was past 5 in the evening. I was worried, or to put more appropriately, I was afraid. I dragged one of the iron chairs in the room to sit on. It made a loud sound, but to my surprise, it didn't wake my brother.

My mum told me he also hadn't eaten since the previous day, and I was gripped with more fear. One day, while in the sitting-room with dad, I had teased him of being a glutton. He laughed, just like he does whenever I tease him. Then he answered jokingly; ”once you discover I cannot eat, then you should know death is nearby". Then we both laughed. I remembered that scene and shuttered.

Big bros made a grunting sound and that brought me out of my revery. When I asked mum why he did that, she told me she didn't like how one of his legs was twisted, so she adjusted it. But that still didn't wake him. He kept up with his sleep, breathing loudly and sometimes unsteadily.

It was getting late. I wished him a quick recovery. My sister was already waiting for me downstairs. We got into the car and went home.

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May 11, 2016.

At my sister's house where I stayed for time being. I just finished popping the hundred drugs administered at the hospital the previous day. Then I made my bed and slept off.

Then deep in my sleep, I heard my elder sister tell the younger one that big bros had died. Then I woke up and asked her to repeat herself. She couldn't, instead, she broke into tears. My younger sister followed suit. They wept like cows. I was disoriented. Without meaning to, tears poured down my cheeks, bearding my bald chin.

On impulse, my younger sister and I got dressed and hurried for the gate. We got a bike and headed for my big brother's house. On the bike, I started reminiscing my times with brother.

The last time I saw him on his feet, he had driven me and my girlfriend to our destination because he didn't want us to take a bike. That was less than three weeks ago. Without meaning to again, fat tears welled up in my blind eyes and crawled down my cheeks. My sister, also lost in her grief, didn't even notice I was crying.

We got home and met a crowd in front of the house. His body had been brought to the house he had built for himself and his family. I approached him on the ground where he was laid and opened the fabric he was covered with. It was the hardest time for me. That was when i nearly lost hope in God

I touched his face and torso. I waited patiently for his stomach to pulsate and announce his resurrection to the mourners. Nothing happened. He was strong and hard.

Being a muslim, he was lowered into his grave same day. I couldn't go near the grave. I could hear the shovel scooping sand and throwing it somewhere, but I didn't want to imagine the sand falling on his fine face because closed my eye not witness the scene

I had to leave the place. One of his friends tried to stop me and I bared my teeth. I was going to shred him into pieces like a vampire. I was running mad

Because his grave was directly behind the reservoir; when the gen came on in the night, I turned on the pumping machine. The tank got filled and water started spilling out and falling on the grave.

I didn't turn it off. Everyone thought I had completely lost it. After a while, my mum succeeded in turning it off. I was satisfied. I had accomplished my mission.

When he was alive, he would never sleep at night until he had had his bath. By wetting his grave, I hope I was able to bathe him for the last time, and more importantly, I hope his grave had been made cool enough for him to lie in.

That man was my all , i thought i will never stand strong in life without but i give thanks to God for how far he has brought me but the void in my life will never be filled. Never!

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Continue to rest in peace, big bros. 💞

Am also inviting my steemit friends @alphafx, @awesomenonso, @noskiart, @beckie96830, @circwall, @davosimple, @beckie96830, @spyrex, @stitches11, @Ezege11, @rexdevex, @sonia440, @whitestallion , @alphafx , @awesononoso , @nellymartunez , @chezandras