The Journey Part 25: My Festive Season: The Bad Side.

Written By Sivuyile Tshalana.

It’s always great to see another day in this world. I know I’ll live for a long time and be successful. With that being said I still appreciate every moment spent on earth. I don’t take anything for granted, as I make sure I thank each day I get on earth.Speaking of that sadly I lost two people I knew, one was my childhood friend and the other person was an ex-colleague of mine. 

My mother sent me a message to let me know that one my childhood friend has passed on and it was just before the 16^th of December 2018. He was involved in a car accident whereby everyone died in the scene except him. Since he was badly burnt on his body and all his injuries he sustained made him more sick. That unfortunately led to his death. He died very young as he was in his early twenties. He was really one of those well behaved children in the township, he valued respect as he gave a lot of respect to almost anyone despite their age and status in the community. He loved cracking jokes, I never seen him angry at all as he was always showing us a big smile on his face. Even if he was angry I would really applaud him for hiding his anger to the world. He enjoyed going to church as most of the times I would find him dressed smart and going to church, not only on Sundays but during the week too.He used to shout my name even if I didn’t see him just to greet me and check I was doing at that time. What really stood out for me was his love for people and his family. As he used to do some part-time jobs to support his family. As we grew up we grew further apart as I relocated to another place to do my own things in terms of self growth.I still felt he was good person based on the times we spent together. Although I didn’t make to his funeral due to unforeseen circumstances but may his soul rest in peace.

My ex-colleague died on the early mornings of the New Year and I was informed by another ex-colleague of mines through a call at night on New Year's Day. We had a good working relationship as he was my superior and I pretty much loved working under his leadership. I would be lying if I say we didn’t have our ups and downs at work. I now realize that I was wrong at time for not taking simple instructions from him. We had less conflicts though and more happiness through our working relationship as I respect his experience of working with people. He was a great person, loved smiling as he was truly attracted to happiness and it was easy for us to know if he wasn’t having a good day as he would stay in the office almost the whole day or night depending on his shift. I didn’t spend a lot of time with him but the time we spent together at work was truly amazing. Almost forgot to mention that he was a very outgoing person and was very known in the place where he lived and worked. He had many posts of him and his living it up in certain clubs. He invited me to a couple his birthday parties but I only able to attend one of them. Which was quite a vibe and we enjoyed ourselves as I brought my friend with me. We also once went to a club with him as well as the rest of the night shift staff. We had a great time, even though I hardly went to clubs but I enjoyed myself. Our staff party was also the one to remember as he made his presence felt through his kindness of making sure everyone was enjoying the staff party. He loved seeing people happy I must say and that brought happiness within him. He loved picking my brain every now and then and loved teasing me in a good way though nothing hectic. He will be dearly missed as his family was expecting a lot from him as he died due tuberculosis and he was still in his early thirties.May his soul rest in peace. 

Death do not be proud. It’s always a shocker when you hear someone has passed on whether you that person or not. Death is something that we can never get used, even we know it exist. But I always have hope that death will decrease and people will live their long happy lives on this earth. We here to stay and our lives better and showing humanity to others. As one wise man once said, “each one teach one.”