Echoes from my past

A certain pharmacist, Mr. Enoch Umeike, and his family shared premises with me at Onike, Yaba. I had taken lease of an outhouse two-bedroom bungalow at the rear of his wing of a duplex in which he and his family lived. He had a sister-in-law called Edith Agina. The proximity, I now thought in hindsight, brought us regularly together. My newly-found source of strength, The Grail Message, provided regular basis for meeting and talking. She was interested in reading The Grail Message also. The esteem with which I held anyone who had had a feel of The Grail Message carried me away into the belief that being aware of it was synonymous with having read and assimilated the lessons for real life contained in it. I pushed the relationship with Edith to a point at which discussions on marriage became frequent.
I was offered a silver cross in September of 1972 at Apapa Residence of the Leader of Grail Movement of Nigeria, Chief Adeyemi Lawson. I have since learnt that Mrs. Ayomagbemi and Major Unuigbe who are my friends and age-mates received their crosses too on the same day. I was so uplifted by this event that I desired the same experience for everyone I held dear.
I quickly recommended the book to my sweetheart at the time, Rosemary Ezenwanyi Nworgu. She has since become a gold cross-bearer whose current duty at the Temple of The Lord on Grailland, Iju, included preparation of the altar for worship. I had believed I was going to get married to her. I allowed myself to be influenced by my elder sister’s appraisal of her father and lost her in the end. In the meantime, she was not psychically prepared for marriage. When she was away for sports against my wish, for she represented University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) in sports, I lost interest. My sister’s earlier opinion made me turn my gaze off her. I then involved myself with Edith. Rose herself happily married an engineer, David Nwamara. Part of the problem was that she was slow to respond to the message on account of deep-rooted allegiance to her parental Catholic faith. Perhaps, I was myself too committed to my new style of life to be considerate. In any case, I always felt for her, since our relationship failed, as someone who would have been my partner in this journey through life. I write this in detail because both she and her husband are knowing ones. In fact, I find that I have never lost a friend made in my youth. Obviously, there have been limits to each friendship. However in this case as well as in others, I have continued to find myself still reverencing all those I have had some admiration for.
I was immensely spiritually lifted by the event of becoming a knowing one through reading The Message. I found I gained increasing confidence in my mission here in creation. That confidence has not left me till this day. Understanding that what one sowed that he shall reap banished all basis for fear of death or hardship of any type. What determined hardship and fear is that gap created by lack of truth and conviction in one’s thoughts, words and actions. I was confident when I behaved in total reverence for the truth. That confidence has powered every action of mine since 1972.
That was a fulfilling year in my professional life too. I was elected into the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) as an Associate No. 406 in the roll of estate surveyors and valuers in Nigeria. I must recount my experiences in the office of Harriman and Company for the lessons it should bear for professionals of the future.
I met my senior colleague (he was ahead of me by one session at the university and was registered before me in the profession), Festus Edomobi, in the practice when I arrived late in 1972 to spearhead the valuation of assets of SPDC. He was a sober professional with attention to detail. I was a rather adventurous professional, willing to create cutting edges in the practice and initiate new attitudes. Against tradition in the practice, I evolved my own method of writing reports and numbering paragraphs in the report. No one noticed the change since Hope Harriman, the boss, was not interested in the details of practice.