Society : Of my aunt’s five star lifestyle

She was what today one would call a party animal (back then, it was mischievous). She was a beautiful educated woman who smoked like a chimney, a man’s unshared habit back then. Even a woman who was educated was viewed in a misanthropist way. After divorcing her third husband, she came to accept that she wasn’t marriage material! She came home and stayed with us. I don’t know why she chose me, but she never allowed me to leave her side! Though I had both my parents, she loved me like her very own. Sometimes I felt suffocated by her love! But as time went by and months turned to years I began enjoying her company, she was the coolest person alive! Aunt Jay knew the real-world better than all folks in my township put together! Over the years she told me uncensored stories and gave me advice that can only be found in Jackie Collins novels! She taught me what to say and when to say it, no wonder my mother was uncomfortable about the closeness we had. Where other youths my age stumbled, I moved smoothly because from her I learnt to put two and two together and get four. Of all the not-so-good stories they told about her, there’s one thing that really bogged their minds. When the last man she divorced died, he left her all his properties but Aunt Jay refused to take a thing! She said she had no use of them. People couldn’t believe it! This brought her a lot of respect from all folks who knew her. By the time she went to meet her creator, I had grown from a boy to a man, but I was still caught under her spell! Though she had chunks of big land and other properties, when she died (according to her Will), she left me nothing! Nothing as in zilch! The only thing she thrust in my hand before she breathed her last was the old handbag she kept her cigarettes in and the lighter that never left her side. “Take it son, open it when you’re ready, it will always remind you of me,” she said and breathed her last. Though the temptation to throw the damn old hand bag in the dust-bin was so strong, out of respect, I kept it in my wardrobe and moved on with my life. Six years since she passed away, as I was rummaging through stuff, I saw the ‘ugly handbag’! I threw it in the trash can. But curiosity got the best of me. I retrieved it and surprisingly there were neither cigarettes nor lighter as I anticipated but a small parcel wrapped in a piece of cloth. I used a bread knife to cut it, and I when I succeeded, I almost fainted! “I must be dreaming,” I told myself! The bundle was full of chunks of Diamond stones! I cried like a little baby, tears of joy and the memories of Aunt Jay! I realized how precious I was to her. martin.bishop18@yahoo.com