Monica.
God has a funny way of uniting people. Or maybe the world has a funny way of uniting us all.
I don’t know which one between the two, but whoever or whatever brought Monica our way, changed our life.
My wife Josephine and I met her in Buru Buru estate, around the year 2000. She was strolling around the estate asking for menial jobs.
Josy and I were then dating and had just relocated to Buru Buru to start a new life. She had moved in a month earlier and we needed someone to stay around the house to take care of my ageing dad.
Mum went to be with the Lord two years earlier and it took a heavy toll on my paps. As the lastborn son, I proposed having him move in with me to at least have company. I also took him back up-country, once a month to allow him to have that needed change of environment, fresh breath of air and let him see her graveyard.
My siblings also visited to spend time with him. I was the closest to his heart. Apple of his eye.
At 82, the only thing that gave him joy was seeing me around.
“You look like your mother,” he always said, touching my head and reminding me how young I was back then, hyper and the joy in their lives.
Monica and Josy, who was then my girlfriend, hit it off immediately when we saw her. We parked the car by the highway and the two spoke for quite some time.
“Imagine I don’t have to ask my cousin to come to stay with us. I think Monica is a good fit,” she stated as we drove away.
“You have just met her, Josy. You need to do a background check on her,” I insisted.
“I know babe. I know. But a good thing is that she comes from our up-country. God has a funny way of uniting people, right? She knows my home. I just felt like we were related when I saw her,” an excited Josy couldn't hide her joy.
Two days later, Monica and her sister who resided in the estate passed by. Josy prepared quite a dinner and we got to know each other.
Her story in brief. She had two daughters, was by then 32-years-old and had travelled to the city to make ends meet.
For us, we were in our mid-20s, hustling in the city.
Monica got the job and she was a blessing in our life. I read lots of stories of housemaids and employers having a difficult relationship.
For Monica, she was like our big sister, our friend. She was there for us when my father passed away in 2002, after aiding us to nurse him in his last years.
Was there for us when Jamima was born in 2004. You should see how she turned sweet 18 recently.
She marched in our wedding two years later and helped us raise little Jamima. Monica was a family. She and my wife bonded, you’d find them cooking together, aiding each other clean the house.
She never complained and we never treated her wrong, before her eyes and God’s eye. In return, we facilitated her daughters to attend school, paid their fees, and treated them like our own children.
We aided her to save her money and we raised her amount after every two years, coupled with other benefits. Josy also enrolled her at a tailoring school nearby.
For the 10 years we lived together, I guess we only corrected her a few times. She was raised right.
The heartbreak.
“Monica wants to leave and she feels she has found the right man to be with her,” my wife Josy told me as we sat in bed that night. “At 42, it's not too late for her to settle, she has been a blessing,” she added.
My heart broke, my then 6-year-old daughter cried and fell ill a week later. We felt like a part of us left.
Josy’s cousins came to live with us. The two were studying at colleges in the CBD and they aided us. For Monica, we threw her a party, paid her in a lump sum and always kept in touch. At that time, we had a lot of projects and my wife and I were a little restricted.
This year, around early February, she suggested that we track her down. That was nearly 12 years after we last saw her. She had relocated to South B where she ran a fashion and design business.
Our plan was to surprise her with a motorbike we purchased to aid Monica’s husband in running his errands and a sewing machine for her shop.
We already had purchased the gifts but Bram, my colleague, made the plan better with an idea that he gave me while we were discussing last weekend’s premier league results. Bram is an avid Arsenal fan and he urged me to try a hand at the new offer on Sportpesa since my predictions on matches were almost always correct.
“Sportpesa has an exciting new feature called “Multibet Boost” for its customers that allows you to win up to 100 per cent more on winnings. The new feature is activated when you place more than two bets with odds of 1.20 and above and it simply allows you to enhance your earnings when they wager on accumulator bets,” Bram detailed.
I enquired whether the bonus was free and what the minimum stake was, and this was one of the best news I ever heard.
“This bonus, which is calculated in terms of percentage, is accessible by all customers provided you meet the requirements for qualification. Stakes go for as low as 10 shillings one can still take advantage of the Multi bet Boost.
“The 100% boost is achieved when your multibet reaches 20 games. This percentage is placed on your possible winnings. The maximum bonus is only achieved for a bet slip of 20 games,” he added.
According to Sportpesa, the more selections you add, the bigger the boost you’ll get.
Boom! Genius. Bram and I sat and analysed a few matches and the question from him was, “What will you do with the bonus?”
“Bro, you wouldn’t want to know. Change someone’s life.” I responded. With the bonus, we purchased Ankara fabric and added a shopping voucher on top.
Josy, my daughter Jamima and I, as excited as we were, left for South B.
The reunion was quite emotional. The three ladies broke into tears, hugging each other. I sat aside and took photos. Memories of a lifetime.
“I love you all,” Monica cried, as her four employees looked on in admiration.
Some people change our lives. Celebrate them while they are still alive.