Dear Nahurira, your charm, love cannot be forgotten

It was a beautiful Monday morning after Women’s Day and just three days after your birthday, and social media was still filled with birthday wishes and love towards you. I guess there was a line of birthday treats awaiting just like your twin Leah Nasasira said at your funeral.

Truth is, I hate to say funeral and it took me so long to write this because in my heart I felt like I would be saying goodbye. A part of me still thinks you are still around but I have to live with the fact that you are no longer here. I have to pray for your eternal rest always friend.

I was at work that Monday morning when a friend called me and asked, “When did you last talk to your friend Ritah, the twin?”
It had not been long: it was only a few days before that we joked about marriage and you had requested that we meet. I recall saying we would meet on Friday.

I wish I had said yes when you asked for a quick catch up after a while. Maybe you were trying to say goodbye.
The statement that I heard that morning still rings in my head. “I am seeing her cousin post that she is dead. She was involved in an accident and I don’t think she survived,” a friend said.

At this point, my hands shook. I stared at the computer screen for more than 20 minutes. After a few minutes, I composed myself and made a few calls to confirm the bad news.
As tears rolled down my cheeks, I remembered our more than eight years of friendship and thought about your twin Nasasira. I had no courage to go to Mulago mortuary.

Prayerful
Nahurira lived simple and always believed that everything is possible. She offered the best advice.
One of her outstanding traits was the desire to teach her friends how to pray. I remember even when her friends never wanted to go to Church on Sunday, Nahurira would give one every reason to.

And she always said, “Pray as much as you can because there is no dustbin for prayer in heaven”.
She loved singing from school days until death. She was a choir mistress at her church and every Sunday during the Holy Mass she took the first reading and sang the responsorial psalm. Nahurira sang so well that after mass the priest thanked her specifically for being a good Christian.

On Good Friday, we would always go to church together just like all other Sundays at university but for this year’s Good Friday you did not manage to be with us. We still cannot figure out what it is but we can only pray and trust in God that you introduced most of us to.
While at Maryhill High School, you encouraged us to pray and fast, introduced us to different religious movements and you made sure we read so that we could pass exams. During some of the early morning preps at Maryhill, you used to sleep but when it clocked time for morning Mass somehow you were always awake and ready to go to church.

Friendly
I also watched how you treated your friends like family. While at university, your room was always full. Sometimes you had to chase them so as to sleep.
“Ritah lived a balanced life. She had friends ranging from priests to DJs. She would go out to have fun on Saturday night and she would also go for morning mass on Sunday morning. She used to love morning mass because it set the pace for a great day,” Nasasira said.
I believe her piety made her live with joy for the more than the eight years I knew her. No wonder she received so much love in return.
She loved even insects that she would not kill a mosquito or any other small insect. She believed they have families that were waiting for them.
“She would tell me when someone annoyed her. She quickly added, “I forgive them”. However, I would go ahead to hate those people on her behalf,” Nasasira recounts.

Nasasira does not think she will ever get that kind of love that her twin had for her.
The last moments…
“Earlier, on the day Ritah died, she asked to wear my favourite jacket. I said it was okay. When I think about it, I feel like she wanted to go with a part of me,” she says.
In high school, Nahurira fondly talked about her twin before anyone met her. She used to ask, “Have you met my beautiful sister?” and this is the same love she had for most of her friends.

Your presence
Nahurira, your presence was just enough to light up the room. With your twin, you were a perfect match and most of your friends referred to you as favourite twins.
Nasasira we know you are still hurting and you may never be the same again but I am sure you are going to emerge a stronger version of yourself because you carry Nahurira’s strength.

Nahurira is watching us and praying for you her twin and family because she knows what you are going through.
Dear friend and sister, your death has been one of the greatest challenges we all had to face, your death was instant and an angel like you will be remembered. May you keep being Nasasira’s guardian angel.
Born on March 5, 1996, Nahurira died on Monday, March 9, when she fell off the boda-boda on which she was travelling and was run over by a speeding truck on her way to work. She was buried on March 12, in Kanungu District.