It is your birthday Daddy, but you are not here, there would be no calls today, no zoom Party like we had last year, no stand-alone jokes, no hearty laugh and most significantly no loud D for D chant. My Daddy left 20th January and it still seems like being in a bubble, I have to catch myself and say out loud, he is not here, Dayo. Hmm! Grief has a way of consuming you, slowly at times, but often almost absolutely, some would say it is if you let it, not true as some days I could not share how I felt with anyone and when people asked his age and concluded that it was my Daddy’s time, it looked like they had no respect for my feelings or who my Daddy was to me. I know now that whether allowed or not, grief has no respect, it will only begin to dwindle when you begin to see that life has not and will not stop. Hence, the bible says … not without hope. Thank God for TIME, it is most undoubtedly the mechanism put in place by God to enable us cope with physical separation, time does not essentially take the pain away, but it is generous enough to allow you deal with it, as the days go by, you settle into the new reality.  … BUT/NEVERTHELESS/ HOWEVER God always, ALWAYS finds a way to comfort and reassure, HE sent me special angels, in form of a family that was going through their own pain too, they swiftly became the pillar needed to hold me up, only God can use pain like that. HE also sent HIS WORD as always, I was led to one of my favorite songs of all time – Thank you Father by Elijah Oyelade featuring Chigozie Achugo Akagha.  I must have listened to this song over a 1,000 since January, the song aptly expressed my feelings towards my daddy, who says God is not mindful of you?  The song comforted me and reassured me that Jesus is the yardstick, HE always has been and always will be. We are meant to be like Jesus! Eureka! my Daddy was like Jesus    Today, I celebrate in a different way, with some tears but with plenty of joy in my heart. Hearing my Daddy call out D for D is not just pain anymore, there is light and a smile. So the loudest thanks goes to my JESUS, for the gift of an exceptional Daddy in every sense of the word, for the memories I am left with.