Last night at 00h59, I was awakened by my telephone. I normally sleep through phone calls as my phone is on silent. However, this one awakened me.
I looked at the pho
ne. It was one of the teachers from my school, who is a dear colleague, and very good friend, Lutfi. Mr. Lutfi is a coruscating educator who has really excelled this year. He proceeded to inform me that he was at the airport about to leave the country. His wife had just died a few hours before in Sudan. He was flying home since, because he is a devout Muslim, the funeral will be today. He has seven kids and the youngest was born only recently. Stunned, in shock, somnolent, and half asleep, I offered my condolences. I then woke up and tried to phone him back but could not reach him on his mobile.
When I awoke this morning to go running, I thought I had had a nightmare. I had to double check my phone to see if the calls had really happened. Unfortunately, these calls were all too real.
My friend Lutfi is a man's man. He is gentle soul whom I count as one of my closest friends, though we have only known each other for nine months. This is just a tragedy. It serves to remind me how short and precarious this life is. I am taking this as a lesson to try to let those close to me know as often as I can how special each of my friends and family members are to me. We are each in a state of senescence and only on this planet for a finite amount of time. There is a saying in SePedi: Motho ke motho ka batho. (Loosely translated, it means a person is a person because of other people.) So to all my family and friends, just know that at this moment, you are in my thoughts. You are valued, treasured, and loved.
P.S. This picture is of Lutfi doing extra work with two students and teaching them to use a dictionary. It was taken on Thursday.
