A Better life with steem // memoirs of a grand-dad// missing the girl child after marriage (post 100% power up)

In some climes in Africa, it is forbidden to count one's children. Instead, they are counted as fingers. So,one can say, "I have so,so and so fingers" without using children as the unit of count. Call it superstition if you will.

God blessed me with five fingers but I lost one (male). Only the eldest is female of which hitherto before marriage, I had prayed against having female children. She proved me wrong on all fronts.

She smartly and successfully climbed the school ladder and graduated at twenty, narrowly missing a first class. This feat, none of her brothers neither achieved nor beat. She worked briefly and returned to do her Master's. The University shot itself on the foot claiming that too many graduate students were admitted and had to indefinitely suspend the programme after they had completed the course work!

Suitors came. She accepted the hand of one of the lot. There is one peculiar thing I have observed since her wedding nearly four years' ago. Whereas the male children breeze in and out of our home, the lady does not because we live very far apart. Her job and two kids pose constraints to her movements too.

Mid- 2018,I was on a tour and stopped over at her place for only about two hours. By December,same year, she and her husband drove to the village to see me as I was home for the Christmas. They spent about three hours with me and returned to their station.

In concrete terms therefore,my daughter and I have physically been together for only five hours since her marriage nearly four years ago. However,modern technology has made it possible for us to be interracting through regular phone calls and the social media platforms.

Although FaceTime calls does not equate to seeing face to face, I miss her.