Leo nimekuwa mazishi ya a good friend of mine that I used to work with for a long time until a year ago.
Jamaa sold me his business and equipment and he moved on to employment because his wife kept nagging him about the long hours and his absence from his kids’ lives due to work commitments.
That was around this time last year.
Tom had never been employed in his life and he was pushing fifty.
So I warned him that it wasn’t going to be easy for him to adapt to being pushed about but he was determined to make his new younger wife happy and anyway, he justified it as a way to spend more time with his young family as he had missed out on being there for his other kids from a previous marriage.
His new wife from Singapore ran an agency that specialises in supplying support workers for the National Health Service.
So Tom akapata job after going through all the vetting process that goes with working with mentally challenged or vulnerable adults…
Me and Tom we kept in contact until around Christmas last year because our boys are the same age and we would bump into each other at football clubs and other kids after school activities.
Two weeks ago I see a strange number calling me and I ignored it juu I don’t answer unknown calls juu zinakuwanga wahala pekee.
I later saved the number out of curiosity and in a bid to WhatsApp it later to find out who it might have been.
But nikasahau hiyo story until yesterday.
Jana naenda bed and out of the blue, a mutual friend of me and Tom phones me and tells me that Tom’s funeral is tomorrow and that he has been charged with informing everyone that knew Tom!!!
Nikamuuliza ati WHAT???..
So he goes on to tell me that Tom committed suicide two weeks ago and under suspicious circumstances so his death has been on the down low owing to a police investigation.
So I’m sitting there wrecking my brain and pulling my hair wondering what could have pushed Tom to Suicide just when I thought that everything was going all so smoothly for him.!
Jamaa had even just bought a second house cash and a brand new Mustang!..
I lost all peace of mind and sort to get to the bottom of this.
Hapo ndiyo I find out that apparently Tom had changed his phone and that his new number was the missed call that I never answered two weeks ago.
The day of the missed call is the same day that Tom killed himself.
What did Tom want to tell me?
Why did I not answer that phone call?
Is it possible that I could have said something to him to make him change his mind?
I guess I will never know.
I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when You most needed me Tom.
R. I.P. my mate!