Memories are made of these

By Lulu Cherono

Last week, Lulu received a letter from Lewis' mother blaming Lulu for the boy's woes. Lulu ignored the call and concentrated on her son's birthday party…

A week later, I had the photos of the birthday party printed and placed in Bahati’s album. I was careful to print extra copies for Neema and David’s albums too. Going through the photos with Bahati calling each of them ‘hii’ was such a pleasurable moment. It reminded me of another era; when David turned one and there was so much fuss about the occasion and photography.

Then, digital cameras were not readily available. We used cameras with ‘negatives’ and you were never sure about the pictures until you printed the films. Sometimes you ended up without photos because the light was either too bright or you removed the film before you rolled it fully. So in our excitement nine years ago, we ‘exposed’ the film of 36 prints and ended up with a paltry five good ones. We were so disappointed… but I ended up blaming Humphrey for the mistake because he was the one taking the photos.

It is only the other day that I realised that the effect of my blaming him was so profound that he rarely touches the camera during the children’s functions unless I insist.

"Mum, I think I will need another album soon," David interrupted my reverie. I sometimes wonder why his choice of words and actions are too mature for his age.

"See, I have only seven slots left before it is full."

"That is okay David. Label that album number three. Remember you will show them to your children?" I said with a cheeky smile.

Strong father

"You know, they will never believe I was that tiny because I will be a tall, strong and powerful father, like daddy."

"So do you believe your dad was once a baby?" I asked, eager to hear the answer.

"Not at first. But now I do… I used to think he was showing me my photos and pretending it was him. I used to wonder why they were not as colourful as mine (black and white) but didn’t really bother to ask," he said.

Neema, who was quiet all this time said, "I always knew that daddy and mummy were once babies."

And that was Neema in her element — suffering from the second born syndrome — always striving to outshine her brother at every opportunity.

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