The Man Who Cried Hardest at My Father's Funeral Wasn't Family

The first man to break down in tears in front of my father's casket was a man no one could recognize.

He caught my attention as he stumbled through the church doors, he went straight to the middle of the church where the coffin was and dropped to his knees. He sobbed and sobbed. He cried more than anybody in that room and he was a man.

His clothes were neat, but not the newest they looked worn. He sobbed like he lost the only person keeping him alive.

He looked aged and exhausted, like he just found out about my dad's death and left everything he was doing to be at the funeral.

He didn't just sob. He cried like a big baby. It wasn't the quiet tears people tried to hide.He was in pain and he showed it.

I and my relatives looked very confused.We glanced at the man then each other, then at the man again.

The church fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. My uncle stepped forward and towards the man trying to shoo him away and convince him that he maybe barged in and wandered into the wrong church.

"Do we know you sir?" My uncle asked.

"No." The man sniffed

As we waited under a random orange tree near the cemetery, It seemed like everyone was carried away and had forgotten that encounter. I didn't, I was glancing at the man who was slouched by a wall near the gate.

My curiosity was greater than suspicion.I walked over with my mother. "You said you knew my father ." I asked ad the man nodded "yes, I owe him everything"

"My husband never mentioned you," my mother chimed in.

"I know, he wouldn't have." The man smiled sadly.

"That was the kind of man he was " the man added.

24 years earlier. Samuel owned a shop where he repaired generators. Just as business was going well, One night armed robbers came and stole everything he owned including all his working materials.

He has was shattered. He had a wife and a newborn daughter, whom he had to feed.They were his sole priority.

He borrowed money to the extent no one would lend him money again. People who he thought would lend him didn't, because they heard from a friend of a friend that he was owing a lot of people. Even a single naira, they wouldn't borrow him.His landlord cut him off and locked the workshop.

"I sat outside my workshop hopelessly, I thought my life head ended." He said quietly.

That afternoon, a stranger stopped by. It was my father.

" He asked why is looked so pale and defeated,"

Samuel laughed "I expected him to sympathize with me and just walk by or just pray for me and wish me best of luck"

Without a word, My father disappeared. He came back with a pickup truck loaded with brand new tools.

A surprised Samuel thought maybe there was a mistake or the tools wasn't for him.

There wasn't, it was for him.

My father paid "a three months rent" for Mr Samuel. He helped unload every tool and prepared to leave. Samuel still refused the sudden gift.

"Your father only smiled" Samuel continued.

"He told me.... I'll never forget these words" Samuel stuttered.

"One day you'll meet someone that their life is falling apart, help them. That's how you repay me".

My mother's hand was over her mouth. We both

never knew of this.

Samuels workshop became as successful as it never was.

It became one of the biggest electrical repair businesses in the state.

He employed many people that he previously couldn't afford to even pay talk more of interview.

He could afford to have more kids. His children went to university. His grandchildren knew no hunger .

He reached into his left pocket and brought out a worn out, decripit looking envelope. Inside were bank receipts

"Your brother attended the same university as my daughter."

He had been the one paying his tuition fees,Things were very hard for us during the period of my father's illness. We knew someone had been helping us, but we didnt know who.

Samuel smiled through fresh tears.

"I didn't want your father to know."

"He didn't help me for recognition,I helped your family for the same reason."

Samuel gave me an old receipt of the tools he bought for him years back. At the back was a note. "Kindness travels farther than the people who carry it."

At the moment I realized that my father's greatest legacy was what he owned, it was the lives he changed.

One act of kindness changed Samuels life, supported my family for years and inspired him to do so for others.

As Samuel walked away, I understood that the most lasting inheritance a person can leave is kindness that continues to touch lives even after they are gone.

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