Part Eleven: The Letter
255 Words
Three years after Oden's accident, I received a letter at work that would set into motion a series of events that would test everything we'd built.
The letter was forwarded from Bridges of Hope's main office. It was from a woman named Abena, and it identified herself as Kwame's daughter—Oden's niece, someone we didn't know existed.
The letter explained that Kwame had written a will before his death, a will that had taken three years to navigate through Ghanaian legal processes. In the will, Kwame had asked that his daughter find Oden and deliver a message and a trust. Kwame had established a substantial endowment—enough to change the trajectory of Bridges of Hope's work in Africa. He'd wanted his brother, with whom he'd reconciled, to use these resources to build the same mentorship model in Ghana and other African countries.
But more than that, Kwame's will indicated that he wanted Oden to know that his work—the work that had taken him away from his brother for so many years—mattered. That what Oden had accomplished in the world had made a difference. That Kwame was proud of him, and that he wanted Oden to know that his sacrifice had not been meaningless.
The letter brought Oden to tears when I read it to him. It was vindication and forgiveness and complicated love all wrapped together.
"I need to go to Ghana," Oden said immediately. "I need to meet Abena. I need to understand what my brother left behind."
- Writer
