In A Moment!

Poverty doesn’t last for a moment. Neither does all of our pain and suffering.

Image by Annelise Lords

Ingrid Thomas and Joan Bronson were best friends from infant school. They went to the same primary and high schools. Their families knew each other as they also lived in the same community. Ingrid’s mother was a single parent of one girl and two boys. So was Joan’s mother. Both girls witnessed the struggle their mothers had to go through to put food on the table. On many occasions, they had to share each other’s lunch. Also, they often had to walk home from school because they didn't have any bus fare. They lived an hour away but enjoyed walking home because the weather was always perfect.

Graduating from high school after attending sixth form and earning their Associate Degree in Business Management, they secured jobs in various nearby locations. They would take the bus to work every morning and often meet for lunch. Ingrid would go to classes after work to get her Bachelor of Arts Degree, while Joan would hang out with colleagues who drove, and then they would take her home.

Six months into their new job, Joan bought herself a new car, “Sorry, but taking the packed bus every morning is too much,” she explained her reason to everyone. She would often pick Ingrid up in the mornings. Ingrid did night classes so that Joan would go home.

As the months went by, Joan would stop picking her up in the mornings.

“Why?” Ingrid asks.

“It’s time you get your own ride, girl,” she coaxes, handing Ingrid an application form she picked up from the dealer she bought her car from. “You are young. You need to enjoy your moment.”

Ingrid nods and walks away without taking it.

Weeks later, Ingrid’s mother noticed that Joan was no longer coming to the house and asked, as Ingrid sat doing her homework, “Honey, you and Joan aren't talking anymore?”

Ingrid stared at her mother and said, “She wants me to buy a car too, and I told her I couldn’t live in a moment because our lives are longer than that.”

“Baby,” her mother walked over to her, then asked, “I don’t understand.”

Ingrid closes her book, puts her pen and pencil aside, and confides, “Mom, you told all of your three children that many of us are poor because we choose to live in ‘the moment.’ And you are right. When you're young and just starting life, things like cars, jewelry, parties, and expensive clothes are fleeting moments. I don’t want moments, Mom. I observed your struggle and pain raising all three of us by yourself after Dad died eight years ago.”

Her mother sighs deeply, staring into her eyes.

“I notice your sacrifices and pain when you don’t have enough for us to eat. Poverty doesn’t last for a moment. Neither does all of the pain and suffering we must endure. I want a trillion zillion moments. That’s why I am going back to school. I want you to have your own home, like you and Dad planned. I want to see you smile again. Since Dad died, you’ve stopped smiling. That is the only thing I will take at this moment. The smile you used to have when Dad was alive.”

Tears steal down her mother’s face, and she reaches out and hugs her only daughter and reveals, easing back to look into Ingrid’s eyes, “he always says that you have a heart of gold, and I will be able to rely on you to do all of the things he didn’t get to do. I expected the boys to do that.”

Ingrid uses her thumb to wipe her mother’s tears, then says, “It’s an honor, Mom.”

Three years later, Ingrid’s dream came true. She moved her mom into their own home in a better neighborhood. A month after they moved in, she was helping her mom decorate a birthday cake for her youngest brother when her cell phone rang. Answering it without seeing who the caller was, a familiar voice called out, “Ingrid, it’s Joan. I need your help.”

“Hey girl, it’s been a while. Sure,” she said.

Half an hour later, a horn alerts her. She goes outside to see a taxi, as Joan exits with two suitcases. Ingrid pays the driver and helps her inside.

She sat on the living room sofa, crying, “I lost my job a month ago. They repossessed my car, and my mom said I should find somewhere else to live. I have no one else to turn to. You were right; my life is longer than a moment. Can you forgive me?”

For many of us, life is longer than a moment. I have seen hundreds of young people in my country living with their parents who are paying rent and buying cars. Our country’s economy is unstable, and so is the financial climate. Securing a home should be their first move. Because for many of us, life is longer than a ‘MOMENT!’

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.