The Fragility of Existence: An Encounter by the Roadside

With the number of accidents I read or hear of every time, it has made me wish nothing should ever make me go out on the road, it is why I don't like travelling but I have never escaped that because I still go out, ply the road every day. I travelled last week on Sunday and returned on Tuesday, we can't stop going out, especially for our daily needs.

I have always watched people die in a twinkle of an eye and it made me believe that word from the scripture that it's just a step between life and death. There was a woman I saw on a short video where she was dancing so hard at an event with some secondary school students and while dancing, she started going down and before anyone could see what was happening, she had given up the ghost while on the ground. Anytime I watch these kinds of things, my mind vibrates because, at that time, I think of death, what if it's me tomorrow? Sincerely, the fear of death scares me the more with how people die all of a sudden.

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An individual left his house in the morning, only to hear that he was in the mortuary as he was reported dead from an accident. Whenever I am travelling, there is this book we are always given as passengers to fill in in case of accidents, they would be able to give an emergency call to our next of kin, and the thought that used to run through my mind then would keep me uncomfortable till I arrived at my destination while in my mind would be pleading the blood of Jesus and praying that everyone gets home safely. Meanwhile, those who have died didn't pray for such as they also prayed to live longer, and get to their final destination safely, but when the worst happens, who are we to question death itself? When it happens, it happens.

I kept thinking of a near-death experience of mine which I couldn't think of any because I have been going out and coming in safely and it's all by God's mercy which I never would take for granted. But there was one I remembered which happened some years ago when I had just finished secondary school.

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Mom had a shop across the expressway which always got busy every day with different people and cars moving. The sound of trailers, cars, buses and bikes was enough to make someone deaf because we were always beside the road which was easy access for passers-by to drop by and get what they wanted. Mom had gone to Lagos to get some goods on this particular day and I was left to handle the shop. My brother who was still a little boy then had already gone to play with his peers, leaving only me to take care of the goods in the shop. Perhaps I was also grateful that he wasn't around me then, it could have been a different case.

Dad had helped us push his car outside with the back view facing the road and the front facing inside. This is because the breads we sold were being arranged in the booth and were shown outside so that people going and coming could see what we were selling, it is believed then that customers tend to appreciate bread arranged in a car rather than on the table as they see it as fresh ones coming out from the bakery. When it was evening, I shifted my location from the shop to the main road while sitting beside the booth and watching as people were going and coming while enjoying the funny scenarios and conversations that were happening.

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A customer came around to buy bread and while I attended to him and was looking for change to give to him, as I went to the filling station beside our shop to look for change, I heard gboah...that was the sound of a pickup vehicle that has hit the side of my Dad's car, it was exactly where I was sitting down. I looked back and was so shocked to see what had just happened. The customer was standing on the other side of the car and I knew he ran for his life too when we were told the vehicle lost its brake.

A woman was even looking for me and when she saw me from the filling station, she said "God, thank you" in the Yoruba language. I just stood there and thought about everything. What if I was sitting there or perhaps still backing the road while attending to customers? What if my brother was standing at that spot? Was this how we would have been hit and maybe die in the process? All I kept doing that day was thanking God for my life. The vehicle hit my Dad's car and pressed the body so hard and I could imagine if I had been there with such a hard hit, something else would have happened. Since that day, my mom never allowed us to sit close to the express as anything can happen at any time.

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I knew sitting by the express as a young girl was risky but we had to do it to survive and help our parents who were also working hard to make ends meet, but sometimes, we need to be careful with the risks we take all in the name of finding what we would eat. I knew then that if there was another way to make a living without risking our lives on the express road, my parents would have done that so we could be safe. But again, everyone dies differently, if not by road accident, another way would come because there are always a thousand ways to die. Life is unpredictable, so we must live our lives each day as though it is our last day. Appreciate the simplicity of life and most importantly, show kindness and always seek mercy from God.

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_{Both images were created from Bing}