An Orphan Girl

Chapter 4:

One hour later, her family and her husband’s family members come. They put him in the morgue . On the way to the morgue, Mrs. MBUNYA sitting in the back, the lifeless body of her husband lying at her side, noticed something strange while looking at him. Mr. MBUNYA, had goosebumps when he is supposed to be dead. How is this possible ? She asked. Is it the pain I feel that makes me ramble ? To be sure, she rubbed her eyes and looked in his direction again and was stunned again. So she began to pray asking the Lord to help her. Arrived at the morgue, the body was installed, they all cried, settled the necessary formalities and went away the sadness on their faces. The return was made without words, in a leaden silence, everyone trying to assimilate as best as they could what was happening to them. At home, the atmosphere had totally changed: it was filled with sadness.

The days passed and all looked the same. The MBUNYA family no longer had a taste for life. All their zest for life was gone and replaced by pain. Incomparable pain. Meetings were held once a week to organize the funeral of the deceased. During which reigned a palpable tension between the in-laws.

A month later, it was the funeral day. The crowps left the morgue on Friday around 9 a.m. for the deceased's house where it remained until 12 p.m. so that and acquaintances could pay their last respects. They took the road to Bamenda and arrived at around 6:45 p.m. . This followed at 8 p.m. the evening. The brothers friends, friends and acquaintances of the deceased for the most were there and presented their condolences and their support to the so hard-hit family.

During this vigil, people gave testimonies about the deceased. In the living room next to the lifeless body of Mr. MBUNYA we could see his wife sitting on a chair surrounded by their children. At one point, Andrea stood up, staring blankly, and walked over to her dad’s coffin. She gazed at him, and tears, tears which since the announcement of this tragedy had not escaped from her eyes flowed endlessly.

She had just at that precise moment realized that her father whom she loved so much, the one with whom she did her homework, the one with her brothers and she played was no more. And to think that morning, they had spoken and she had tried to dissuade him from going to this meeting which cost him his life.