‘SHE FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT...... ’

As adolescents I faced the constant tease of uncles and aunties because in my few 'fights' with my twin I never came out 'on top'. They laughed musing that I must be very weak not having the strength to overcome a girl!

I also grew up with the constant suggestion that I was the older twin even though I came out of the womb minutes after her. Whenever I expressed or mooted skepticism they explained to me I was older because I sent Folashade out to explore the world, and to come back only if things were not palatable. They claimed it was only when I was assured that the world out there was safe that I ventured out, it sounded like cowardice to me. For years I believed that stuff but as I entered secondary school the whole illogicality of it gradually dawned on me.

I also admired her mastery of the 'Yoruba' language something I never quite managed, we both started speaking Yoruba late, in fact my siblings and I never spoke to each other in Yoruba. We now speak it with my mother and that influenced me to try to get my children to speak Yoruba.

The moral of my ramblings today, is the same theme I have constantly tried to make, that she was a pacesetter, she set the pace and followed it through to its logical conclusion. For instance she had the foresight to join a specialised area of the law practice rather than settle in the many new generation banks of that era. As a British citizen she could have come abroad like some of us did, but she stayed and slugged it out in Nigeria till she attained success, she never gave up, she was relentless.

This typified her end for in it she fought and fought until she was assured by God of her glorious room in heaven.  She fought the good fight, she ran the race!

So let us examine our lives today, and the race set before us that we might be freed of any distractions.