Tales from My Grandmother: Man is Priceless

Column: Tales from my grandmother [Part 1] by Brooke Nuwati has been a regular feature on My Joy Online the past several weeks. Nuwati explains the premise here:

Grandma encouraged me to be confident, resilient, assertive, tolerant, faithful, modest and patient. All these and many more virtues she imbibed in me in a most natural and unforced manner. I picked them (oh, I hope) without knowing that I was being groomed or tutored. I grew up thinking people grow naturally with these things. Maybe that explains why I’m often too sympathetic towards others, trusting them too much, thinking that they would equally see the beauty in others too while appreciating their differences. I always want to give people the benefit of the doubt. I have been so blessed. So blessed I didn’t even know!

These virtues continue to guide me, assuring me that hard work and patience are virtues worth pursuing and that there are so many more things to recover and discover in life – life is a lesson; keep learning as much as you can. Most importantly, do practice what you learn, for knowledge acquired and stored only without its application is as good as nothing.

Let’s take this journey happily together as I share with you in the coming weeks, some other interesting tales from my grandmother.

Why am I sharing this here? Because I found this tale from a few weeks ago: Tales from my grandmother: Man is priceless. Don't be fooled by the title. This is a straight forward Cinderella story with some modern trappings.

I'm *spoiling* this time, sharing most of the ending--I didn't include the very last paragraph so click through to read it all--but it is where the Cinderella qualities are the most modern. The fairy godmother becomes godparents who provide an education instead of a ball gown. The heroine becomes the first lady of the nation after much persecution from a stepmother endured with hardworking patience. The story is self-aware of it's fairy tale qualities, but never calls itself a Cinderella tale.

As in a fairytale, Emefa remained sober and polite and went about her duties while praying to God for a lot of patience. Unknown to her she had won the admiration and love of a childless couple who had seen the hardworking dirty-looking girl running in the neighbourhood on one errand or the other. The couple contacted Emefa’s father and requested that Emefa came to stay with them while they assume every responsibility of her including her education.

Mrs. Alele was all-joy as she couldn’t wait to get rid of the bug in her cloth, Emefa. She gladly threw her out the moment the couple expressed their interest, for it was overdue! She wished the couple a happy time with the pack of trouble they are rushing for. “If only they knew what they were in for?” she muttered to herself as the couple left happily with Emefa.

It so happened that Emefa was sent to school where she excelled and came out with a Masters degree in Business Administration. She later married a young man she graduated with who later became the President making Emefa the first lady … mother of a whole nation.