...coz I feel so bad about my life. What with my peers prospering while I seem to mark time?". Lamented Bob*, an ambitious but dejected youth, to the humor of the friends with whom he had been drinking. They all laughed him off, with one offering to provide him with a rope to hang himself upon. Now, Bob was a graduate while none among his drinking mates had made it beyond secondary school. Ironically, all these supposedly unlearned fellows had booming businesses, wives and kids at home. It was this clique of 'friends' that would mock him day in day out, since the day he had lost his job at the Bank. No sooner had he lost the prestigious position than his wife left him, running away with their one year old son. To make things worse, the bloke had not revealed to his parents and siblings that he had been canned; so they continued making financial demands of him, like it was their right to have a share of his earnings. It was understandable though, as he was the only one with a Degree in the family and they had been used to being his dependants, after all. Things became too bad when the Bank, his former employer visited him to repossess his household chattels (he had had them on credit) in full glare of his neighbours. He became a laughing stock in the community. That's when he started developing suicidal tendencies.
Lest you misjudge him, let it be known that Bob had not been a habitual drunkard before; he only took to the bottle after finding it difficult to come to terms with his changed social status. The stress developed into depression, and him being an introvert could neither speak out nor find anyone to understand his predicament. He had even tried a Psychologist who advised him to get back to the dating scene but all the girls he tried would be unable to put up with his morose attitude. Now everyone was blaming him for losing his job and family - you'd think that it was them that had given him both job and wife, in the first place. All this regret and self resentment made him feel like he was a liability to the society and would be better off dead.
Bob had actually intended to take his own life in September, 2018. Were it not for World Health Organization (WHO) who organized to commemorate World Suicide Prevention Day, a worldwide annual event at around that time, he would not be with us anymore. He postponed the implementation of his fatal plan upon learning that in Kenya, the worldwide annual event was to be marked in his home county; at Embu Level 5 Hospital on 10 September, 2018. On this unpopular but special day, Bob attended the event with the hope that he would find at least one person who would understand his plight. As it was, he was not disappointed; apart from listening to 'saved' suicide victims narrate real life stories worse than his, he met the Chief Guest - Embu governor, Martin Wambora who not only inspired him to greatness but upon hearing him out, organized for him a scholarship to pursue further studies in USA. That is how Bob found a new lease in life, took his Masters Degree abroad, landed a big job with the government, got married again, 'adopted' his own son and became a great man of international repute. His transformation from a self-pitying suicidal soul to a renowned leader, author and motivational speaker became a parmanent part of Governor Wambora's legacy.
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