When I arrived to my meeting with the FIFA officials, they informed that my contract was at its last stages. They called for the meeting to assure me and take away any concerns I had on me getting the agreement. They also said I needed to prepare my business plan for the World Cup because it needed to be included with the contract. My business plan would decide what my license fee would be. The officials didn’t tell me what the smallest requirement was on the amount they would accept in order for me to become a licensee. I needed to make sure that my plan met the least amount required without much information.
I still had another week left before heading back to the USA and spent most of it at my uncle Perkins home. My uncle was very busy and most of the time I spent with his wife, she was very intrigued with me. There was something about the way she looked at me and conversations we would have. It wasn’t uncomfortable but I remember wondering why was she this way with me? It was different from the way my fathers sisters treated me. They were nice to me too but something was different about the way aunt Linda embraced me. I want to say, it felt genuine. I couldn’t fully understand why she was the way she was with me especially because I didn’t remember her and my mother never talked about her. I felt like I could trust her more than I could my other aunts because of her warm embrace.
Aunt Linda would tell me stories about myself when I was a child in Swaziland. She also asked questions about my mom but I never answered her directly. When I was with my father side of the family, discussions about my mother were not up for discussion. With the history between my mother and my father’s family I didn’t think it was right. I would always respond by saying she was fine and give that polite smile. I also picked up that my aunt Linda wasn’t so popular with my father sisters. I was often caught between the crossfire. Sometimes I would be invited to places or given gifts because it was a way to stick it to someone else, without me knowing it. I learned more about that as I got to learn more about my family.
On one of the days while visiting, my aunt Linda took me shopping. We went to a popular store that my family goes to for jewelry. I remembered some of the pieces from Maru’s 21st, my aunt Arma borrowed me some earrings from her collection. I’m not a big fan of my Arma’s style but the earring she borrowed me were very beautiful. When my aunt Linda and I arrived at the jewelry store I thought she was going to buy something for herself. Instead she told me to pick a pair of earrings. I was beyond shocked, it was too much!!! She insisted I pick a pair. I picked out a pair of classic 3 carat diamond stud earrings. I still couldn’t believe it. She then told me to pick a necklace. I really couldn’t believe it, I told her the earrings were more than enough. I could tell by saying that I was at the borderline of almost insulting her so I went to look at the necklaces.
I picked out a 3 tier diamond necklace. Again, still in disbelief at what just happened and grateful at the same time.
She told me that her middle daughter Roslyn has the same ones. She was talking about my cousin who lives in the UK and the one they describe as weird, like me. Later that day my aunt Arma was having a celebratory lunch, I can’t remember what the occasion was. All of my family from Botswana and Swaziland travelled to SA for it. It seemed like my family travelled to SA every month for an accession. The funerals I could understand but sometimes it just felt like they were traveling to have lunch together. When I arrived at my aunt Arma’s place for lunch I pulled my father into a room and showed him what my aunt bought me. He seemed happy about it, I would later find out that he wasn’t. I also showed the gifts to my other cousins and older sister and they seemed excited too, at least I thought. It turns out I was the only niece who received such an extravagant gift from my aunt Linda and it didn’t sit well with the others.
During the lunch my father was one of the few selected to give a speech, I mentioned on “Page 13 Maru’s 21st” that my family is big on speeches. My dad started by thanking the family for welcoming me and brought up the wonderful gift that my aunt bought for me earlier. He made sure to not mention my aunt Linda’s name and only thanked my uncle. At the time I didn’t think it was intentional and felt really bad that he did not include my aunt. In my family being recognized is a big thing, it’s taken personally when a person is not recognized for their goodwill. I found out later that my aunt Linda and father’s relationship was not in a good place at the time and he purposely did not mention her. He took a kind act towards me and used it to hurt her. I was caught in the crossfire in a way that I shouldn’t have been. I felt really bad for aunt Linda and could tell by her facial reaction that she was upset.
The following day I went back to the USA and showed my mother the gift from aunt Linda. She never talked about her and I figured since she was an in-law the relationship wasn’t as bad between the two, I couldn’t have been further from the truth. When my mom saw the gifts she barely said two words and the conversation moved to something else. I knew from that moment aunt Linda and my mom had a previous relationship and clearly it wasn’t a good one.
After some time, I found out that there was more to the gifts my aunt Linda purchased for me. Again, I was caught in the crossfire and was clueless about it. This time it was between my mother and aunt Linda. Here I was thinking I was special and excited about what my aunt did for me, yet it was not about me. She wanted to give a message…
#Growth and #Wonder 