Take your leave, clock out at five work will still be there tomorrow

A lady taking a rest after a long day [Courtesy]

Like clockwork, she would wake up at 4’oclock every morning to head to Marikiti, the farmer’s market in downtown Nairobi to purchase her day’s stock. Then as the estate awoke, you would find Rose seated beside her wares, already set up in the shopping centre.

She was as much a part of Savannah Estate as the public primary school where all the neighbourhood children went. A vivacious and jolly woman, she was the heart and soul of the market and was known to buy extra stock of bananas which she would hand to those she deemed ‘hungry-looking’. And when one day at noon she collapsed in the market and immediately lost consciousness, the neighbourhood would come to a standstill.