Work in progress: For Debbie, Rest In Peace.

I was going to do a post on wedding shenanigans but my mind wasn’t settled. I have written and stopped, written and stopped but nothing was forth coming.
This morning, while in the bathroom, I thought, ‘today is Wednesday,
I have to write today. I need to write today’.

As my mind wandered, three people kept springing up in my head. Hopefully, I will try to, in these three days, write about them. I SAID HOPEFULLY O.

Meet Debbie.

I came across Debbie, on social media (Instagram) when craze clown put her up on his own page. I went ahead to look at her page.

This is what I saw;

Idiagbonya Osarere Debora.
A stage IV Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Metastasized Breast Cancer Fighter. I AM A WORKING PROGRESS IN GOD’S LAB.
With God and you, I will beat cancer.

I was amazed! If you know what this disease is, you’d understand why I was amazed.
Debbie was suffering from cancer. And she was open about it, carrying us along with her progress on her journey.
I was awed. I was amazed. How could this beautiful soul that radiates so much joy be going through this.
I wanted to reach out to her but I didn’t want to seem I was here to pity her (I understand some people who go through pain do not like to be pitied) so I hit the follow button instead and said a prayer for her.

I took my time and went through to her page, my heart broke. She was so positive about her situation. I finally reached out to her. I wanted to write on her. I was going to make her my Woman crush for WomanCrushWednesday in respect to Women’s International Day.

My message delivered but I didn’t know it was only a part of it. But I got a response. I didn’t even know I got a response.

Her response was everything!;

‘Be strong in your faith,

like you said, our present situation should not determine us’.

It was perfect!

I mean it was weird that this reminder was coming from someone who was suffering from a life threatening disease to someone who was nowhere close in suffering to what she was going through.

‘I’d reply her’ I thought.

I didn’t.

I had misplaced the piece of paper I had drafted my message on. I said I was going to contact her, if I could draft another one.

Sadly, I never got to speak to Debbie again

Debbie died. She passed on.
(Kindly take a moment here and pray for her soul).

If you go to her page, I encourage you to do so ( (@debbified) it would be closed by the end of this week). You’d be amazed an amount of life that was bursting out of someone who was facing a a life threatening situation.

So I ask you,

‘what is it?’

Really.

What is it that you’d let pull you down to the point where you’d give up?

How pained are you that you should stop fighting and believing?

‘Be strong in your faith’, was what Debbie told me and each time, every time something goes wrong, I just tell myself, ‘stand firm in your faith Chidi’.

Whatever you believe in, as long as it promotes goodness and peace (keep your religious sentiments to yourself today please) and it works for you and keeps you sane, stand firm in it.

I will tell you, all things happen for good.
Maybe Debbie knew she was going to die, maybe she didn’t but she knew she wasn’t going to let anything take her down.
Take a moment and realize that eyan le ku anytime (A person can die at any time) but before you die, will you fight? Will you give up?
When death eventually comes, will you be at your best?
I don’t believe that a situation should define you because only then have you allowed yourself to be defeated.
Debbie’s life should be an example for all of us.
I always insist that we should make effort to live instead of just existing because in living, we change lives unconsciously without even knowing.

Life is short, but while you can, please live.

Do not let yourself be held back by anything or anyone. Our strength lies in our ability to turn the pain into power.
I have often heard people say that most times it is not in the result that makes you a winner, it is in the effort.

To some people, Debbie might not have beat cancer. I’d disagree.

Debbie looked at cancer in the eye and told cancer, ‘I will beat you. You won’t take me down’.
Debbie lies in my heart and in the hearts of those that she touched. Debbie lives, she beat cancer, and she still lives.

Debbie’s profile said as at the time she was alive,

 I AM A WORKING PROGRESS IN GOD’S LAB.
WITH GOD AND YOU, I WILL BEAT CANCER.

If you understand what it is like to be a constant work in progress in God’s lab, you would know that Debbie is indeed a working progress, even in death, she is touching lives.

God is still working.

Even in pain, there is hope.

Rest in Peace Debbie.

You are and will always be God’s work in progress.

©M.Chidi.

2016.