It’s exactly a week my family observed 1-year remembrance of my Father’s death. The remembrance afforded me some time to reflect about my Dad and the lessons I can boldly say I learnt from him. 

As a baby till the years I became a 2-digits birthday holder (because I had a baby sister when I was 9 nine years old), I was my Dad’s most loved baby girl especially because I resembled his grandmother. To the extent that my younger brother confessed some few years ago that he was sometimes jealous of the loving manner by Dad treated or played with me.  

I still remember some of the bible stories he shared with me and my younger brother. He studied History and Christian Religious Knowledge in NCE so he had lot of history in his mental archives and he didn’t fail to share with us as many stories as he could. I’m sure I got some innate storytelling abilities from him😀. 

My Dad was a wise, cerebral man and obviously introverted. I saw in him the strengths and weaknesses of introversion. And truth be told, I got my natural introversion from him. He was a grassroot politician in his early thirties, people that knew him then still refer to him as “Honourable” because he was the Deputy leader of his ward in our hometown. My Dad had big dreams of being a lawyer and an accomplished politician, but life happened to him. 

 I heard and saw many attempts he made to fulfill these dreams, but he didn’t get any. Till his life’s anti-climax, I saw him practically worked hard to achieve success in bagging a bachelor’s degree, yet, he didn’t get it. Yes, life dealt unfairly with him and he didn’t achieve some of his goals, but I always saw in him the spirit of a fighter, he was a silent fighter not one that ‘louded’ his intentions. He pursued his dreams till his last days. My Dad was not a quitter neither was he lazy and I saw him got better in character for us. I learnt from him never to give up on anything if you want it. Keep pursuing your dreams, let nothing hold you down. 

My Dad, Mr Oyebanji Oyebisi was a responsible man. He didn’t have much but with the little he had I made sacrifices for us depriving himself of some pleasures to have our needs met. So far, the most expensive birthday gift I ever had was given to me by Father, he bought me a laptop for my 20th birthday. It was a huge surprise to every member of my family. You can be responsible that people can count on you for support no matter how small it is, knowing you won’t disappoint them. 

Wisdom, I mentioned earlier that my Dad was wise, you can almost refer to him as a sage. He is that kind of person that people look forward to hearing him talk because when he talked, he clearly analysed issues from the unusual angle that nobody had talked about earlier and proffer solutions to the issues.  

Also, my Dad was a Christian, he was not a staunch ”SU’ but he was a true believer of Christ that taught my siblings and I how to know God for ourselves. ‘Daddy’ as we call him was an overtly faithful man, he does not manipulate anything, he is no emitter of negative vibes, so he was very cautious with words . And yes, he was a lover of children and has melodious singing vibes unlike my mum’s inharmonious tunes😂, the woman cannot sing to save her life🤦‍♀.  

Mr Oyebisi was a peaceful man too. My Dad is usually calm and composed, many people would describe him as gentle. He rarely shouts or beats us as kids. Ironically, he beat us for the small things that we took for granted and he overlooked the big offences that got my mum mad at us. One rebuke or beating I will not forget I got from my Dad was when he legit gave me rolls of slaps till I practically saw stars, I didn’t believe in that analogy until I had that experience🙄🤯. 

I need to say that my dad gave his children reins to make our decisions, he was not a dictator. As I mentioned earlier, he wanted to be a lawyer but he couldn’t so he really desired that one of his children would study law and become a lawyer but somehow none of us likes law. He left us to make our choices of career and supports each one of us every step of the way.  

Really, there is no perfect being anywhere, but I can boldly say that my Father Mr Olalekan Oyebanji Oyebisi was a good man with beautiful legacies. Thank you for living well for us Sir. 

That’s it guys, hope you were able to glean one or two lessons from this post. Thank for reading and being part of my world. Je t’áime mon ami😘😘