"THE ANGEL OF DEATH AND HOLD MY HAND"

FRACTURED FAMILY

"THE ANGEL OF DEATH AND HOLD MY HAND"

- Introduction:

Ikechi's disturbing behavior

It is very disappointing and disturbing when a family member arrogates unto himself a demeaning responsibility or function: the angel of death.

Ikechi, aka principal grandson and chief mourner, is now self-acclaimed prophet of doom for the family.

Ikechi's Heinous Treatment and Misdemeanor

- Ikechi's excuse for not visiting his ailing mother

When approached to elucidate his heinous and inhuman treatment and misdemeanor toward our ailing mother prior to her death, he glossed over it with the unbelievable and malicious excuse that she was long dead. In his view, our mother was either a walking dead or living dead.

Oxymoronic Defence and Lack of Empathy

- Ikechi's insensitivity towards his mother

He was oxymoronic in his flimsy defence of his insensitivity toward our mother who showered him with unconditional love and had always wrapped him in cocoon of warmth and protection in preference over her other children.The question on everyone's mind was, where lay his empathy and conscience.

Unacceptable Excuses and Fallacies

- Ikechi's excuses for not visiting his mother

His excuse for not visiting his ailing mother was very unacceptable. It was both a superior fallacy and a logical fallacy.

The dead could neither eat nor drink. Our mother was neither senile, a vegetable nor zombie.Furthermore, he was out-and-out in denial about our mother's ill-health.

Distance and Denial

- Ikechi's unfounded excuse

His excuse that distance between him and our mother was a barrier which kept him from keeping tabs on her was completely unfounded.

Even before her relocation to Umueze, which was his creativity as a result of his outright refusal for a structure to be put together for her at Avo Isiama Afara-Ukwu, he refused to visit her at our ancestral and her matrimonial home.

Preference for Money over Mother's Welfare

- Ikechi's priorities

What was more, he had preferred to be given the money for her medical treatment, as he considered it misplacement of resource which he could have put to alternative use.

Where was that milk of human kindness in him? I presume there was drought of sympathy in his seat of emotions.

Contradictory Claims and Accusations

- Ikechi's claims and accusations

As if this was not enough, he claimed to have been instructed by me through our sister not to visit where she and our mother lived.

I did not speak with him directly, but I did say so as a result of his complete refusal for a house to be built for our late mother at Avo via our late father.

But this was at the initial stage of the family strife.

Request and Refusal

- Request to visit and refusal

In the course of my last visit to Nigeria to bid the matriarch final farewell, I requested him with a largesse to be visiting our ailing mother and by so doing, assist our sister from time to time in caring for her.

But he answered, "They are isolated." Isolated how? Our mother and sister lived in a self-contained apartment with perimeter fence.

He could not shade light on how they were corralled.

Mother's Words and Ikechi's Response

- Mother's words and Ikechi's response

During my telephone conversation preceding the Nightingale's terminal admission, she blessed me and called me by my name, "Prince, you did not do anything wrong to me. Ikechi wants me dead."

It was Ikechi, according to her, who made her sick. The revelation was made in presence and hearing of our sister-Akudo.

She is a living witness. Let the readers fact-check me.

Ikechi's Callousness and Mother's Death

- Ikechi's callousness

Moreover, Ikechi pronounced her dead while she was still alive.

Granted she passed, is not only her passing that grieves me and my sister, but also Ikechi's callosity to her.

Akudo verged hysteria and depression as a result of this inhumanity and callousness.

As she was in death throes, she gasped, "Dede hold my hand." But he refused to visit her.

She gave up the ghost in grief, agony and indescribable bitterness.

Conclusion

- Ikechi's pattern of behavior

My sister interjected, "Call me, I am here caring for you, but he did not care for your welfare."

In conclusion, Ikechi's attitude toward ailing family members has been the same, predicting and pronouncing them dead while they were still alive.

He has become the angel of death. Wherever he walks, death lurks.