Suddenly, Grandfather took ill a few months after the one-year period of mourning of his son. The sickness culminated into his death. We do not know the exact cause of his illness but, gradually, he lost control of his precious brain and treasured memories. He could not understand anything easily and barely talked to us for days. We were afraid, for his death would bring fresh blow which we were not ready to receive.
He died few days later. When he died, Mother and my old cousins did their best in giving him a befitting funeral for a man of his age. We did not have much, but we tried and answered all the calls made to us. With the death of grandfather, we still believed that all hope was not lost. If grandfather had live long afterward, he would have been a foundation stone of our family. But he chose the good portion and left us entirely to the cold hard earth as my father did.
On the next two market days after his funeral, we realized that we were left alone with no strong hand to look after us. So Mother found solace in her newfound faith. I learnt that all would be fine if we believe in the Lord of the heavens who atoned for our sins. She was not entirely perfect in her worship and did not trust Him as deep as she did to the gods of our fathers. We prayed with her sometimes, though she never forced us
After each prayer sessions, we would say amen, stand and be comforted that we had carried our burdens to God who would comfort us afterwards. Darkness carried itself deep into the night and the songs of birds died away, having been replaced by shrills of insects. I have always been afraid of darkness. I screwed my eyes up in an effort to see everything, but I could not. The space now carried vague figures and twinkle stars that dissolved into nothing, only to take on human shape again, a shape which I would mistake to be mother’s. It was not hers. This forced me to go outside to look for her only to realize she had suddenly disappeared after the prayer.
I walked out of the room and saw her on my father’s grave. I thought the prayers we had would have brought some relief, but it seemed to have increased her pain. She had gone there perhaps to ease her pain. Hardly daring to slap my feet hard on the earth for interruption, I stood perfectly still, watching her roll on the red, her voice rising to meet my father’s silence. I went to her, tearfully.

CHAPTER SEVEN
More Reason for Tears
Our roof had turned terribly bad and it was the heart of the rainy season. Only the roof of widows leak during rainy season. Our compound had gone bushy and untidy and because it was rainy season, we could not gather enough materials to work on them. There was nothing we could do. It was now clear that ours was a compound cared and maintained by a woman; a young widow and her children. The weeds grew very fast and were nearly covering our feet, especially in farms that were close to the stream. Because Mother attended to many matters of interest for both men and women, she was left with little time to take care of other things around the house.
Nights of rain were bad for us. The rains dropped into our room and soaked the red earth, our cloths and mats. We wake the next day, with stains of the red earth on our entire body. As I lay down in the nights in mothers' room to keep her and my siblings company, I see mother struggling to shelter my younger ones from the raindrops falling into the room. She would place little calabashes under the openings in the roof to stop the water from forming more holes in the room.
The memory of the first rain was with me. It showed us the task set before us. Our old roof needed repair. We were playing in our room when the sign of the coming rain showed up. The moon was up in the sky and we saw it from our room. Suddenly, darkness enveloped it and we felt cold in our body. With all these and the speedy gathering and dispersing of dark clouds, the silent lightning and the violent breeze were signs of an impending rainy season.
This caused Mother many anxieties. She could not sit down and concentrate on anything. She had to say it again and again to me that the task was cut out for us, to fix the roof.