Partly Baked: A Memoir of My Life On A Journey To Completeness

By Elizabeth Ngumi

PARTLY BAKED: A Memoir of My Life On A Journey To Completeness. Partly Baked will touch your heart, mind, and soul. Elizabeth Ngumi has managed to create a factual, multifaceted, and detailed compilation of her life. You will find the book a fascinating, cathartic, essential, and diverse read that is sure to inspire and pour out into your own life vital lessons that will propel you to aspire after a life well-lived. The book covers heartening, mind-blowing, and soul-searching contents that will reveal the relevance of the following:

 

1. Amalgamation as a tool to encompass variety and variation

2. The importance of education, both formal and informal

3.  Honoring parents, understanding, and adjusting to in-laws.

4. Parenting, overcoming obstacles, and personal transformation

5. Authentic growth in spirituality and unconditional love

6.  Importance of culture, holistic health and food

7. Wealth management, and happiness

8.  Coping with grief, single parenthood

9. Becoming whole again.

10. The importance of the dichotomy between professional ethics and self-sacrifice.

11.  Retirement is a new normal not a curse.

12. Becoming an author after age 50+
 

Elizabeth Ngumi applies her personal journey, life story, and Spiritual Principles to support people through their own spiritual journey as well as personal development. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elizabeth Ngumi
• Release date: May 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781737123804

Elizabeth Ngumi

Elizabeth Ngumi was born in Kenya but currently lives in the USA. She is the author of: “Partly Baked: A Memoir of My Life On A Journey To Completeness” Elizabeth helps mission-driven individuals share their unique message, become authors after age 50+, live in alignment with their true purpose, have abundance and deeper happiness in their spiritual lives and enjoy life after retirement. It’s an invitation to a life of unconditional love.  Her passion is to continue sharing knowledge and understanding by using herself as the specimen. Her book will meet you where you live and work. Because the book gives you an idea of how nature and nurture can motivate an individual to write about: being born and raised in a native home, being educated locally and internationally, being a child, an adult, a career woman, a wife, a widow. a parent and grandparent, and above all being a staunch Christian. Hopefully, some reader could as well decide to tell their stories as I have told mine. Elizabeth is a holder of Bachelor of Education (Science) from College of St Mark and St John of Exeter University, UK. She holds an S1 certificate from Kenya Science Teachers College Nairobi and Alliance Girls High School, Kenya.

Book preview

Dedication

W

riting one’s memoir is therapeutic but this was not done in a complete vacuum. I have been vastly assisted during my journey by so many people who have contributed to enriching my life in many ways. This book is dedicated to all our offspring and their offspring and spouses.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I

would like to express my gratefulness and love, first, to the Lord for without Him the milestone would have been out of reach for me. Next, I would like to convey the same to the following people:

To our children, I do not name you individually as stated in the preamble even though each one of you will be able to identify the role(s) you played to ease my burdens along the way.

To mama, I hope you remember the special time we spent together in April 1997 while we shared a roof for four weeks at your son’s house in California, USA. You decided to socialize with me more broadly than ever before. You tirelessly narrated numerous stories to me. Even though we were both new widows, at every opportune time, you physically and emotionally kept me fully engaged. You didn’t only cure  my  depression  but  decades  later,  your  stories became major components of my first book. I would not have asked for a different mama.

To the couple who processed my written manuscript into soft copy that enabled me to forward a readable manuscript to the publisher. Your devotion to my course was timely, remedying, and above all a blessing.

To the duo who regularly liaised with me to handle the payments. As usual, you were in tune with my expectations. I could not have managed the financial transfers without your immeasurable and honest input. Working with you was not just a result of the inherent child-mother relation but a blessing.

To you, who received and then forwarded the manuscript to Joyce and thereafter helped me draft the bio; remember the copyright? In brief, all that you have done to aid me in this process. I have been humbled by your commitment to my course.

To you, who spent time to come up with the high quality and factual tribute to your father.  It is a true testimony of what I portrayed him to be in the book. As always, your keenness on family matters has been astounding and well noted.

To those who did not seem to know our family dynamics. Your shortfalls and inhibitions synthesized my writing agenda. I have enjoyed writing for you.

To my closest friend Sophia: Thank you for our life-long friendship, for being my good host more than once in a foreign country, for keeping in touch, for encouraging words.

To Joyce Gikunju my publisher at Bounce back Books. Thank you for your intelligent advice, kindness, and patience while explaining the publishing process. Without your input, I would have missed out on the opportunity to enter the world of authors.

To anyone who said anything positive about my writing. I listened to your positivity about the art of writing and did the best I could with your input. I believe you are being blessed.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BOOK COVER...................................................I

Copyright....................................................II

Dedication..................................................III

Acknowledgements..............................................IV

Preface......................................................7

Preamble....................................................8

Chapter 1: Amalgam Span: A Combination Of Many Aspects..................18

Chapter 2: Education Span: A Valuable Goldmine.........................42

Chapter 3: Love Span: Love Resource Guru.............................91

Chapter 4: Honor Father And Mother Span..............................133

Chapter 5: Service Span: To Discern Affluence...........................152

Chapter 6: Parenting Span: An Immortal And Moral Cause..................170

Chapter 7:  Cooking Span: Food For Life.............................199

Chapter 8: In-Law Span: Dove-Like In-Laws...........................219

Chapter 9: Spirituality Span: Nearly There.............................244

Chapter 10: Work Ethics Span......................................292

Chapter 11: Retirement Span: I Am Not Tired...........................305

About The Author.............................................331

Reference List................................................332

PREFACE TO PARTLY BAKED

A Memoir of my Life on a

Journey to Completeness

P

artly Baked will touch your heart, mind and soul.

THE FRONT AND THE BACK cover enclose heartening, mind-blowing, and soul-searching contents that will reveal the relevance of the following: 

* Amalgamation as a tool to encompass variety and variation.

* The importance of the education we receive within informal and formal settings.

* Unconditional love as the ideal even in marriage.

* Honoring your parent as honorable, sacred, and as a prerequisite for long life.

* Parenting even though complex and complicated has always been done, can be done, and will forever be done.

* That cooked and raw food is essential for holistic health.

* The need to understand yourself in order to adjust to your in-laws. 

* Authentic growth in spirituality.

* The importance of the dichotomy between professional ethics and self-sacrifice.

* Retirement as a new normal not as a curse.

Elizabeth Ngumi has managed to create a factual, multifaceted and detailed compilation of her life. You will find the book a fascinating, cathartic, essential and diverse read that is sure to inspire and pour out into your own life vital lessons that will propel you to aspire after a life well lived.

PREAMBLE

M

y initial thought was to juggle my consciousness and sub- consciousness to write a journal. I believed a journal would be detailed enough to enlighten our children about their dad, and myself, while also highlighting their ancestry. After writing a few pages, I unavoidably got stuck at the base of the mountain I had intended to hike.

While I remained emotionally glued at the base of the mountain, I deduced that since I had never profiled daily journal records, which are indispensable in journaling and the fact that as time passes clarity and remembrance of past events fade away, my initial thoughts were more of fiction than reality.

Hence, it was next to impossible to sequentially remember details pertaining to all the events of my life let alone be able to incorporate other related details. Bearing the latter in mind, I decided to explore the art of writing a book because I needed to compile a family-centered piece of work; a masterpiece that could be acknowledged. Special acknowledgement goes to our children. I was delighted when they unwittingly motivated me to write.

For when parental instincts had impelled me later in life to open up during varying conversations, I realized that although we adequately provided for their basic needs, we ought to have enlightened them about who we were and who we were not, in terms of our limitations, latitudes, and successes and failures. I felt that the best and permanent mode of filling their inhibitions and shortfalls was to write a book for them. Frankly, writing for them became an invaluable privilege and I have enjoyed every minute spent in achieving this objective.

Nevertheless, the privilege demanded re-structuring, hard work, unwavering determination, special adaptability, stamina, and above all prayers to sustain the momentum. Wherever applicable, I avoided the use of their specific names, but the children will be able to identify the areas that concern them.

At age sixty eight, after toiling to parent singly for nearly  two decades, decidedly and boldly too; I have done what we might have been motivated to do as a married couple. Notwithstanding, I have no doubt his spirit is an integral part of what I have achieved since he was more committed to the welfare of our family than anybody else. I believe the following tribute composed by our oldest child is a testament to what I have theorized about him during writing.

It is said that a father’s heart is the masterpiece of nature. You were the portrait of our godly father and we are proud to be your children. We witnessed your constant and unwavering devotion to your family. Your active presence was felt and witnessed in your family’s lives. Thank you for being a reliable and responsible father. There were many challenges in bringing us up but you never complained. You and mom managed to provide for your children. You taught us to endure hard times and to deal with challenges. This prepared us for the future and to be what we are now: strong- willed and hardworking children. Others also passed [through] and grew up in our home. They have kind and gracious words about you. They are always so grateful that you gave them the opportunity to better their lives through the provision of a home and equally through education. Thank you for allowing them into our lives because this taught us to be better persons and [to be] grateful to God for what was provided. You taught us to always stand firm [on] our convictions in the face of personal pressure. We learnt from you to be adult in our responses to life challenges and face reality. We pray to emulate you as parents and bring up your grandchildren to [be] persons [of] worth on earth.

Now that it is twenty years since the Lord took you from us, we are grateful for your presence, care, love, and devotion. Dad, thank you.

I came up with the title, Partly Baked after I had compiled a detailed, accurate, and trustworthy analysis of the information our children and other readers will be able to recognize and understand from the contents of each section of the compilation.

Looking at it analytically, I realized that some sections appeared partly done, some seemed as though they were waiting for  an overhaul, others were relatively well done, and some were complete in themselves.

And I said to myself, the sections which appeared complete will represent the idea that the product though partly baked will resemble a fully baked product when completed.

Hopefully in the future, I will be able to ‘defreeze’ partly done sections to complete them to become constituents of a fully baked product. With the latter realization in mind, I opted to overhaul and then filter ‘mixtures’ in my memory to separate them into two parts: filtrate or clarity, and residue or obscurity. I thereafter relied on the separated results to come up with something worth reading.

From then on, I mainly worked with the filtrate and only worked with residue under unavoidable instances. I found this process of filtration in my mind obligatory because I had many areas to access, explore, analyze, compile, and collate into a book.

Deliberately and devotedly, after traversing the afore-enlisted quintuple, I then had to refine and rationalize my psychology, sociology, philosophy, biology, and spirituality to principally enhance quality.

I will not try to exhibit the resulting spans as being an exhaustive coverage of the objective I set forth to achieve since I am aware of the unlikelihood of a 100% score. But, if in the end, the exhaustively covered component could constitute, let’s say 80%, I would give myself a thumbs-up for my accomplishment.

Although I geared my devotion towards achieving an "unconditional level best" to ensure an exemplary and exhaustive delivery; drawing a solid line between exhaustive and the incomplete span coverage proved a goliath task.

For in real life activities I have been far from reaching perfection and completeness. I firmly wrestle to never let go of my firm hold on the art of improving what I tirelessly work on that I may approach the duo: perfection and completeness. Nonetheless, to the reader, the exhaustive component might represent ‘solidity’ whereas the incomplete component might represent ‘porosity’.

Despite this, I was able to compensate and elevate any shortfalls in regard to perfection and completeness, by juggling the brain, further reading, talking to family and friends, and spiritually gaining insight by the Holy Spirit. Deliberately, I have frozen in storage some personal information whose omission did not seem to detract the achievement of my primary objective, which is, to supplement the fraction our children know about the genealogy, dynamics, and demography in regard to their parents and relatives.

Wherever applicable, I have intertwined interpersonal and intrapersonal information to amalgamate varying values along cultural, social, psychological, physiological, scientific, and more importantly spiritual connections. It is by the grace of God, whom I invited to guide and guard my emotions and deeds that I was able to mold span by span to make up Partly Baked.

With so many details to recall in regard to my journey with my offspring, I primarily focused on how I went through their gestation and brought them to this world, how I played my role in raising them into adulthood, how much I wanted them to know who we were as a couple and who I am as a single parent, how much I love them unconditionally and how much I trust they will inform their children that Partly Baked is for them too; and how much God was guiding me to not only ardently and ambitiously serve them but to sustain parenting them.

To propagate this existential parenting, I elected to mainly call upon my growing up and parenthood years to form the physical and emotional foundation of my writing. Sincerely speaking, writing has taken me back to the recesses of my past.

And since social psychologists have stated that revisiting the past can make the present better, I felt good about the entire rebounding process. I will not then bring to an end the amalgamation of my past with my present.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I decided to dissect and display my past to help our children unify the earlier younger mama with the present older mama, to mold a better compound mama figure in their minds.

Maybe what is revealed in these pages is news to our children. Their experience is different from mine. I had been raised in a home where children were not allowed to intermingle with parents and other adults. I grew up believing that God, Ngai in Kikuyu, created a world for grown-ups and a separate one for children.

My husband’s home on the other hand, was quite the opposite of our home because adult-children or bidirectional integration was routinely and graciously upheld.

My husband ought to have transfused this nurture-acquired benefit to our nuclear family, but I think marriage emotional entanglements smothered the possibility. Consequently, he did not manage to neutralize my aforementioned perception. As a result, both of us unintentionally denied our children the right to, for example, informal education which they would have acquired from us through accidental and intentional conversations, listening, and non-verbal communication.

I wish to specifically invite my in-laws to read my book. And also reveal that some or all the information I have given about them, emanated from Ngumi (their kin), Marion (their mother and cucu), and my four sisters-in-law particularly during the one week they stayed with us at our Nakuru home. Even though Ngumi, Marion, and my two sisters-in-law are deceased, I continue to trust who they were and what they revealed to me.

Likewise, majority of my in-laws have been uncommonly good persons particularly for making my widowhood manageable and livable. I have heard of sad stories about widows being chased away from the matrimonial homes by in-laws immediately after the burial of their husbands or widows being accused of neglecting the children to chase a luxurious lifestyle and the greatest pleasures.

Gladly, none of these unfortunate realities were thrust into my path by my husband’s family. They left me alone to stand on my own. Thus, I was able to peacefully generate enough money from the bookshop I ran to pay school and college fees for our children and not have to depend on raising funds through Harambee (harambee means ‘let’s pull together’ and refers to a fundraising event), from relatives or even friends.

I am highly grateful to my parents for bringing me into this world, blessing me with good genotypes to influence the development of my good phenotype, and letting me  grow in their home. Mama, I proudly record this about you: You primarily, showed me that people give what they have and that there is always something to give. You had special gifts for each of our new-born. And I recall you are the only person who gave our children money before they left for college.

I thank you mama for selectively picking me to undertake varying menial assignments and especially letting me work for pay. In so doing, you effortlessly pushed me up the ladder of life to, for instance, launch my commitment to serve all and sundry. The menial employments prepared me to handle future workplace ethics such as working among people of different religions, cultures, genders, ages, and ethnicities; and also, how to work in an ambiguous work environment.

Baba, though you went to be with the Lord, I have this to say about you: Your commitment to my education was outstanding. You walked with me to Gatura School for registration and you struggled to pay my high school fees. And even while I was at Kenya Science Teachers College (KSTC), you borrowed money from your brother to procure my first set of eyeglasses. The many years you agreed to live in the vicinity of my marital home were the most blessed years of my life. For, you unswervingly elevated my ‘honor your parents ‘attributes. I learnt so much from you and mama. If you both did not jointly parent me  the way you did, I would not have been able to serve your offspring, grandchildren, and my stepmother the way I have done. Thus, I faithfully and respectfully give you the benefit of doubt concerning the few times the nurture operations within our home deviated from the norm.

Growing up in a family of nine siblings, five of whom are now deceased, positively impacted my social and emotional strengths. During our childhood, sibling rivalry was non- existent amongst us. Sibling rivalry began to sip in and slowly maul and kill the good healthy sibling relationships we had enjoyed for years after all of us were settled down in jobs and family life.

We are fortunate this monster’s invasion came after nature and nurture had equipped each one of us, materially, financially, emotionally, and spiritually to cope and inhibit its obstructive and destructive effects. Gracefully, God has resurfaced our love for one another. While the resurfacing  has been a good thing, it demands everyone’s goodwill to authenticate the olive branch we grant to one another.

Now I have a duty to prepare you to read Partly Baked. I will attempt to raise your level of curiosity by imprecisely listing this elemental information about myself. Secondary information will precisely annotate these points through the detailed sequential spans that follow. Let us now read the elemental information of me as:

•  A young woman growing up during the Mau Mau rebel- lion

•  A young woman undergoing primary education

•  A young woman in high school with boyfriend issues and who later becomes a Protestant

•  A single woman in college handling education and a Catholic boyfriend

•  A single adult who leaves home to live a more independent life

•  An adult woman who marries, starts a family, and be- comes a Catholic

•  An adult woman who teaches biology and chemistry

•  An adult woman who gains global exposure

•  An adult woman who spontaneously manages a school sys- tem and widowhood

•  A mother who raises adolescent children

•  A widowed mother who releases her children into the world to live alone and fill the world

•  An aging staunch Catholic who delves into emphatic writing.

I would like to state that I will not promise to delve into writing about grand parenting. As a grandparent I have chosen to unreservedly participate in the lives of my grandchildren and it is an on-going process.

Related to this, I have been blessed with opportunities to interact with most of my grandchildren. For example, in December 2015, I greatly interacted with four of them and got the chance to listen to their feelings about themselves let alone about me. I overheard one of them tell the others, "We have a funny cucu!"

I guess I was judged this way because I often played football and other games with them, I chatted with them, and I paid attention and participated in their discussions. The other one, amid laughter said,"Cucu is mono-eye, hahahahaha ...This was in reference to my eyeglasses which had a single lens after one had slipped off the frame and which I continued to wear. And the third one warned me, Cucu if you report me to my mother that I cried in her absence, you will not be in my football team tomorrow. The youngest later said, Thank you," while I was changing her diaper. Participation in my grandchildren’s lives is an added emotional booster.

I feel much younger mentally as I interact with them. Having grandchildren makes me feel more of everything good, than I have ever felt before including my recent journey of writing.

Finally, Partly Baked is divided into a number of spans. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defines span (noun) as, the length of time that something lasts or is able to continue. Feel free to read them in any order. Apparently, for no reason, I attempted to organize them the way they appear on the contents page.

The arrangement appealed to me but I think  it might not appeal to some readers. I deliberately began with Amalgam Span as an introductory chapter. This is because an amalgam is a combination, admixture, alloy, blend or simply a mixture of things.

Compilation of the amalgam gave me the freedom to pristinely include my psychology and vital personalities such as: Francis Nathaniel Ngumi (my husband or Muthuri wakwa), Tabitha Wanjiku Kahora (my mother or mama or mami or our children’s cucu), Joshua Mwangi Kagoci (my father or baba or our children’s grandfather), Kagoci Muthunga (my paternal grandfather or guka), Beth Gathoni Kagoci (my paternal grandmother or cucu ), Kahora Githunga (my maternal grandfather or guka), Mariam Njoki Kahora (my maternal grandmother or cucu), Elikanah Thuku Wanyeki (my father-law, our children’s guka) and Marion Wambura Thuku (my mother-law or our children’s cucu).

Together with the preceding personalities, I briefly touched on miscellaneous aspects like the Kikuyu pattern of naming children, the clans of the Agikuyu, childhood, polygamy, advancement in Kikuyu burial rituals, baba as a family man, and mama’s talents as well as her parenting style.

Even though, the entire book is more than a worthy read, I will not be remiss in highlighting the importance of reading the Spirituality Span. I used the word spirituality to represent my spiritual journey, how I progressively acquired and advanced connections with my Creator. Although my prevailing spirituality may be pupating soon to hatch into a nymph, it has blessed me nonetheless with the endless privilege to enjoy, for example, graciousness, ambidexterity, listening to advice, serving, self-actualization and now writing.

I have learnt to focus on my Catholic faith to become a better believer and  a better writer. I have mentioned that a believer ought to act as a tool to spread the word of God. Personally, I believe if a reader can harvest a bit of spirituality from the contents of my spiritual span, I will have helped by becoming a tool in spreading the gospel. Supposedly, this span might enhance a person’s race toward blessedness.

More importantly, I wish to invite everybody to read my book. Why? It’s because I managed to clone a broad spectrum or multifaceted factual and detailed compilation. It encompasses historical, cultural, and family anecdotes, scientific information including food and health, elevation of status quo just to mention a few.

I also believe that it will be an incredible discovery for those who read the entire book. I will not hesitate to reveal that the book is fascinating, cathartic, catalytic, and overall essential and diverse. For all, it is my ardent hope that you will enjoy the read and learn something you can carry into your own life journeys.

CHAPTER ONE

AMALGAM SPAN: A COMBINATION OF MANY ASPECTS

CHAPTER ONE

AMALGAM SPAN

H

ere I am for assessment and grading. My name is Elizabeth Njoki Ngumi. I was born at Ithanji ridge in Kiarutara village, Murang’a, Kenya. I am the second child of the late Joshua Mwangi and Tabitha Wanjiku. According to the birth order phenomenon, I can be categorized as a middle child. And like all other human beings, I own a personality, although I presume that birth order has little to do with my personality.

I have however read that middle children are thought to be cooperative, understanding, flexible, and negotiators. According to Psychologist Alfred Alder, Birth order is not a deterministic concept but does increase an individual’s probability of having certain set of experiences, (Coley). Since birth order topic is still controversial, which I believe is implied by the following words by Alder, Actual birth order is less important than the individual’s interpretation of his/her place in the family (Coley); I believe the contents of my book will disseminate sufficient information to help readers either approve or disapprove the presumption that, birth order has little to do with my personality.

Whenever I attempt to find out how my personality fits in the introvert or extrovert definition, I have always found myself stuck at an impasse. More rightly than not, I deduce that I am a person whose personality is a harmonized mixture of introvert and extrovert. Or perhaps I ought to specifically label myself an ambivert, meaning my personality falls in the middle of introvert and extrovert. An extrovert, according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is, a lively confident person who enjoys being with other people. While an introvert, according to the same dictionary, is a quiet person who is more interested in their own thoughts and feelings than in spending time with other people.

I think I am ambivert because, I rarely tell others what I am thinking but not so much out of a sense of insecurity; but because I know when to be outgoing and when to introspective, when to be reliable and when to be excited or aggressive, when to be optimistic and when to be reserved, when to transit and adjust, and when to bend to acclimatize to a new niche. Though I might appear disorganized, my well-organized span is kept concealed, which leads to the tendency to mount personal intrigues of the highest order. I believe while writing the accounts of my spans, I might interest not only our children but other people because of my least understood but fascinating traits.

For instance, although it is my secretiveness which contributes to my regal bearing, I should guard the elevation of this tendency as it might lead me to retreat too often into my own world instead of taking part in the world around me and that might  lead to not developing my unexplored potentials such as grand- parenting and writing. Growing up, relatives and neighbors described me as one who is quiet but listens, friendly but not outgoing, flexible but streamlined, and always hardworking. Later in life, particularly after the demise of my husband, some of the people wondered how easily I could deviate from the real me particularly during conversations. They alleged that I seemed to be more of a talker than a listener. Perhaps because, depending on the prevailing situation, I developed the art of being able to move between being a good listener and a good talker.

Additionally, while giving service to people especially blood relations, I found myself conceding and taking actions to satisfy their needs regardless of my prevailing circumstances. The word ‘no’ was absent from my vocabulary. I had delegated myself to second position in everything that I did. Later in life and with the understanding that comes with age; when I found it mandatory to answer ‘no’ to certain requests, demands or even ineffective advice, I landed in unmanageable problems.

The people who knew me as a ‘yes’ person found it impossible to take a ‘no’ from me. Nonetheless, I am still in the process of understanding myself holistically in order to help me unearth what God intended for me to be and the necessity of being able to say ‘no’ when I need to.

As you continue reading, you will learn more and more about the unification of my ancestry, psychology, sociology, and philosophy to compound the person I turned out to be. From counting backwards and according to what my mother (Mama) told me, I was born in 1947. Between 1945 and 1962, mama gave birth to nine children (four boys and five girls). The fourth born, whom they named after my father’s father (Kagoci) died early from an untreated infection. The few hospitals in Murang’a district were far away from my where we lived. Therefore, my toddler brother, who died strapped on my back inside the baby-carrier known in Kikuyu as ngoi, was never taken for specialised medical treatment.

Though I was a young girl, I recall the day with some despondency, especially when I remember the hurried manner mama dislodged his lifeless body from my back and then I heard her solemnly say to my brother’s lifeless body, Kagoci ni wandega ringi, meaning, Kagoci you have declined my naming you again? These words implied she had lost another son named Kagoci. According to Kikuyu practice they ought to have named my brother, their second son, Kariuki, meaning one who came back from the dead. I think this was done to protect the loss of another son. Therefore, my parents decided to name third son Kahora, after mama’s father (Kahora Githunga).

The last born were fraternal or dizygotic twins meaning each twin developed from a separate zygote, formed when the sperm fuses with the ovum or the egg, and each ovum was fertilized by a separate sperm. Mama said that my sister was born five minutes preceding my brother. After the entry of the twins into our family, mama revealed to us that long ago, the Kikuyu considered twins a taboo (thahu) and the midwives had a responsibility to ensure they didn’t survive. Luckily, the myth was eliminated by Christianity. By the time of the birth of my twin siblings, the Kikuyu viewed the birth of twins as normal.

Mama told me that I was born around the time baba was running a clothes business in Molo town. And she added, The effects of a war had just faded away. I guess she was referring to Second World War from 1939-1945. And since, ...had just faded away is too relative, I am inclined to