She went on to tell us so many things and in the end we were all convinced that the termination letter was a blessing in disguise.
“All hands must be on deck. Your father has been working for this company for over a decade now and we still live in a rented apartment. If the job was that good, we ought to have been living in our own house by now.”
She wrote so many things on a sheet of paper and mapped out duties for all of us.
The next day, she made zobo and kunu and bottled them. Lucy and I went from house to house telling people that we now sold cold kunu and zobo.
Mother bought a bigger refrigerator a week after and we began to sell more sachet water along with the kunu and zobo.
Within a month, we had found a shop across the street. My mother set up a laundry shop for my elder brothers there and they were always busy because she announced it at the church. Almost half of the men in our church patronized them. Most evenings, we all joined hands in washing while Eugene and Jerry did the ironing. When they had so much work, they would invite their friends and pay them for the services rendered. Our house became more like a business hub.
The egg business started a month later and my father got very busy. His phone was always buzzing with people calling for supplies. Mother was always counting money. With the interest that came from the business, she bought agro products and kept them in a very big shop which we rented months later.
When it was six months and she was to hand over to my father, he smiled and said; “Be the boss my love. Just be the boss and I will forever be at your beck and call.”
By the time Jerry returned to school, he opened another laundry shop there.
We now have three Sienna cars to distribute eggs. We now have people working for us. We now have three shops and own two houses which we gave out for rent. Our own living house will soon be completed. It might seem like magic to some people but we are all proud of my mother. We all saw how it began and she was transparent enough to let us know how every penny was got or spent.
To crown it all, my brother Jerry will be graduating this year while Lucy will be heading for Finland to further her education.
In this life, there is always a solution to any problem only if we can look inward. When a door is closed, there are some other better doors which can be opened for us.
