Since tying the knot nine years ago in a splash wedding, there are two dates that I have made a habit of remembering because they mean so much to my wife, Gloria.
One is her birthday which falls on July 7, and the other is my mother in law Eunice's birthday on April 3. I will ever forget the day I dared to forget her mom’s birthday which led to me getting the silent treatment for weeks.
After a long lecture about it, I finally came to understand why her mom’s birthday meant a lot to her- ever since she was young, they have always made a habit of spending the day together.
Being raised by a single mum sort of galvanized their bond, so much so, I was sometimes envious of their relationship.
Gloria and her mum Eunice particularly love indoor cooking but they would occasionally resort to eating out when she felt a little philanthropic.
She always wanted me to accompany her on the special trips to Murang’a to celebrate the day that would usually require a lot of planning from her.
I was forced to buy a gift, which always presented me with a challenge of trying to figure out an appropriate present for a 72-year-old.
One thing that has always baffled me is how my wife would make time out of her busy schedule to honour her mother's birthday.
It always made me guilty whenever I was too busy or caught up with work and could not drive her all the way, which was one of the things that I enjoyed most, as I got to push my Toyota Rav4 to the limit along the meandering tarmac.
Just recently, I started noticing a dull mood in my wife, her face was sunken and she was way below her cheerful self- that made you notice her perfect dental formula that would put to shame a well-aligned guard of honour being inspected by the president.
When I finally gathered the courage to ask her about her low spirits, she was full of emotion because she told she could not make it to her mother's birthday, owing to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
Everything seemed beyond my reach as to what I would do to restore her mood and more so deal with her missing her mom’s birthday for the first time ever.
The travelling option had been thrown out of the window because she did not want to put her vulnerable mum at risk of the virus and the dusk till dawn curfew exacerbated the situation.
As I was racking my brain trying to find a solution, an ingenious idea of buying my mother in law a smartphone that she could use to facetime her beloved daughter on her birthday hit me.
Despite the brilliant idea, executing it was still as challenging as coming up with an excuse to leave the house with her company.
I thought about using my Co-op Visa Card to buy the smartphone online and have it delivered to Eunice quickly and was surprised at how easy it was to transact. What was even more amazing is that I did not incur an extra cost when using the Co-op Visa Card to pay for goods and services.
I made a couple of calls to get up to speed with the whole concept of video calls and how it works, which I have to admit was a painstaking process, especially having her navigate around.
I kept this a secret all along and when Friday came, I had to admit I was blown away by my wife’s reaction to the surprise call.
They went on chatting for about two hours, recalling old times and how they would reunite once the virus had been kicked out, all this time with the airtime I purchased for her using my Co-op Visa card.
I was pleased with how much the Co-op Visa card helped me navigate through that tricky situation and put a smile on two women who mean so much to me.
That friends, is how I ended up killing two birds with one stone as I scraped off buying a birthday gift and at the same time making my wife happy all thanks to the Co-op Visa card.