It is with a degree of sadness in my heart that I recall the passing of my father, 12 years ago. Although he and I had our problems due to the fact that we were both alike in many respects, God took me to his side just a few weeks before his passing.
Although failing in general health and unable to speak clearly, his mind was still very sharp. During the last few days together, he was man enough to say sorry to me for all the injustice he had shown to me.
It is difficult for any man to accept that he is wrong, especially a mathematician as great as my father. But that was his greatness. He had realised his error in backing his elder son against me and he knew he had ignored the truth and that I had been cheated by him.
As he and my mother sat with me in the house, both of them sounded tragically affected by the wrong they had done.
In my usual self, I laughed and told them that I had no bitterness in my heart to either of them. In fact, I did not hold any bitterness at all to them and I said I would be prepared to give the wrong-doers a second chance.
Even as I said that, my mother shook her head and told me that it would not do any good as they had been corrupted beyond redemption.
It was then that my father recalled the very first moral lesson that he had given us as children. It had been given to him by his father - "Let not money be your master but your servant". This was from the lesson taught by Jesus:
"But never forget that, after all, wealth is unenduring. The love of riches all too often obscures and even destroys the spiritual vision. Fail not to recognize the danger of wealth's becoming, not your servant, but your master."
My father had explained to us, as little children, that it is not money that is the root of all evil, but as had been said by Apostle Paul, it was the love of money that was. (Holy Bible, Timothy, 6:10)
A few weeks later my father was no more. I could not be present during the last days and hours before his death.
Even as as he drew his last breath he told his other children at his bedside, especially to remember me and not to leave me alone.
They did so for precisely the time that the audience was present.
12 years after his death, his will has not yet be sent to me!! Not a penny of all that he worked for, for his children, has been accounted for, to me.
Out of sight, out of mind.
A few years later, in the year 2000, when again I was with my mother just a few weeks before her passing away, she recalled those few days at my father's side and asked me whether I harboured any bitterness for the injustices wrought on me by my elder brother and younger sister, and my nephew, the son of my late elder sister, who had been brought up as my younger brother.
I told her that although there was no bitterness, the less I had to do with people who were liars and cheats, the happier I was.
I asked her to recall the year 1955, when I had drowned, and how I had been given a chance to live a second life on this earth and brought back, alive, to her. I asked her to remember the poignant moment when we were reunited and how when she had hugged me in relief, and how she had felt when the son she had thought was lost was brought back to her by the Lord in whom she trusted.
I told her that since that very day, status and money and the accumulation of either had been the least important thing in my mind. Those who thought they were getting one up on me by stealing what was legally mine were sadly mistaken.
The guilt was on their heads - not mine!!
Every day, every minute, every breath truly has been a gift from God to ME.
I was happy to be in this world to live a second life, and that was enough for me.
I reminded my mother that God had blessed me with a wonderful loving wife and four lovely children, and at that time, 2 absolutely heavenly grandchildren (now 3). My life was complete and those who cheated me would have only themselves to answer for at the time of justice!!
Five years after her passing, her will has also not been sent to me and her wealth has been shared by the greedy!! Not a single penny of her wealth has been either accounted for or sent to me!!
As I remember my father today, I feel sad for those mentally warped and twisted people, filled with greed, who resorted to cheating and stealing!!
It is their loss, not mine.
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