It sounds kinda extreme, but it may be true to a certain degree, as echoed by my friends after i tell them about it.
Here goes, "Good women are either dead, or have one leg in the coffin."
Before people start jumping at me for my throat, let me attempt to explain why I said that. I think of the women of old, especially my grandmother and my mum, a few aunties i know of, Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth II, when I say it. Maybe i should put it closer to home and just talk about my grandmother and mum.
My grandmother was an amazing woman. I have never hear her complaining about the numerous tasks that she has to undertake while looking after the family. The day starts early in the wee hours of the morning for my grandmother, as she will wake up earlier than my granddad and dad to prepare for their breakfast. As they are eating, she will prepare their stores before they leave for work. After they had left, my grandmother will prepare breakfast for her remaining 10 children. As they wake up one after the other, my granny will have to feed the young ones while telling off the older ones to behave at the dining table. As she sends them off one by one to school, my grandmother, with my youngest uncle in tow, will visit the market for grocery shopping.
I have never seen a woman stronger than my grandmother with my own eyes. She could hold two big plastic bags full of groceries on each of my finger and thumb while her little finger will hold a smaller one. I think of my girlfriend and I laugh…when she can’t even hold a laptop bag properly with her whole arm.
After retuning from the market, granny will go about cleaning up the whole house and preparing for lunch and dinner as the day goes by, slaughtering the chickens, ducks and sometimes crabs. She will also be busy washing the laundry, feeding the poultry and livestock and involving herself in some cottage industries to supplement the household income. She does not go to bed until it is midnight, having to tend to the children and her husband. Repeat 24/7. 365 days a year.
I salute her with both hands, forever endearing her and holding her in the highest regard.
The woman I will always love and love the most till the day I see her again in heaven.
My mum is also like my grandma. Being in a different era, my mum still epitomizes the spirit of the women of yesteryears. She juggles her work and housework admirably, and was always around to instill the high level of discipline in my brother and me, not compromising on her strictness, but compassionate and loving when needed to. She never wastes money on skincare products, excessively and ridiculously expensive and useless fashionwear and jewellery. She saves up for her own holiday and never expects my father to pay for anything that is for her own personal usage. She always believes that money should be hard-earned and one should not overspend, needless to say, credit is intolerable.
I always had high regards for the fairer sex, being brought up by two women who were like god to me. I always thought that women were amazing people, made of a different material than men, favoured by the gods. Until, I grew up and met women of the 21st Century. My, I have never been brought crashing down to Earth as hard as this before, to have a notion imbedded within me so totally demolished and overruled.
Elaborate? Let’s just say that I shan’t waste time on this for the moment. It’s time to go back to work now.
