Tai, The Beautiful One

Tai,
The most beautiful person I knew
I never knew anyone who loved God like you did
Who passionately pursued him daily
You loved God with all your heart
And now that you are with Him
You truly are where you always belonged

My journey with you began twenty years ago
When we were both young
And death was foreign to all of us
We parted ways more than we joined
You left to live in Nairobi,
And I, in Eldoret
When our paths joined again,
It was as if we had never parted
Tai and Chero
Together again

I never knew you as Carol or Chemu
And you never knew me as Miriam
You are my only friend who calls me ‘Chero’
You are the only one who truly knows where I come from
Yes Tai, you are still alive
I can’t imagine my world without you.

Yet you are gone from me,
Your spirit is set free from this flesh
I grew up with you
And I was supposed to die with you
I wish I were there with you when you left
I wish I could have hugged you one last time
No, hugging you at the airport was not enough
I wish I could have embraced you one last time.

Tai,
You told me once that I wouldn’t wake up tomorrow
And everything would be okay
And I know that it’s going to be hard
For all of us
But if there’s one thing you taught me
One thing that I will never forget
Is to trust God
And to trust that in His time
He will make all things beautiful
Fly my beautiful one
Fly and be set free
I can’t imagine my eternity without you.