Alcohol Addiction
As a youthful man he consumed alcohol significantly. To the extent, many believed his volume of alcohol consumption had surely damaged his liver beyond repair.
Many wrote him off and predicted he would have an early grave. Miraculously, papa Omio continues to prove them wrong!
Broken Hip
He had a great big fall which necessitated papa Omio to be hospitalized for nearly a year or was it years in Mulago Hospital. This was so that they could repair his broken hip.
Some wrote him off again. Thinking that even though he survives surgery, he will never be able to walk again. But they were wrong. With the help of crutches he walks.
Covid Scare
In August 2021 he was taken very ill. Even though papa Omio had received his first does for Covid (omusujja omukabwe), he apparently got it.
Pallisa Hospital could not handle and so in critical condition he was rushed to Soroti Hospital, where he was hospitalized for two weeks or was it three weeks.
Again, some wrote him off.
Well, papa Omio got well and he is so full of life again.
Outlives His Brothers
Last weekend, when papa Omio heard I had come home and was beautifying his brother’s grave, the grave of my late papa, he insisted on spending the day with me. Hanging at his brother’s resting place.
Papa Omio told me so many hilarious stories about him and his late brother; stories that I had never before known.
His Own Home
Stories like how at first they shared a compound with my late father – each with his household but within the same geography – as my late grandfather had allocated to them, his sons, land under customary tenure.
He even pointed out that the kabaka njagala (candlenut) trees at our home were planted by him. And all along I thought that they were planted either by my late father or my late grandfather.
Anyway, according to folklore, papa Omio’s mother, one of my late grandmothers, wives to my late grandfather, insisted that he demand a separate piece of land from his father so that he too could locate his home separately.
Apparently, one of the reasons why she insisted so, was that even though he would be the one hosting people for a meal or even an ajon party, his guests would say:
“We are going to Owaraga’s home.”
And that did not go down well with papa Omio nor with his mum.
And so it was that papa Omio was given another location and he is proud that his mother had the foresight to pressure him to insist on it. With pride he says:
“Now, when I die, like Owaraga, I will also be burred at a place of my choosing in my own home.”
I am happy for papa Omio. He will not join the league of the Kasangos, when he dies. But I pray that his day does not come soon.
Legacy
We had a great day and shared breakfast, lunch and evening tea; after which my driver dropped him back to his home.
The life of my papa Omio, brother to my late father, has me convinced in the belief that if it is not your day you will not die.
My papa Omio “star nnyoo” as they would say in street talk here in Buganda.
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