Goodbye Alpha

He was only 8 and very small. But he had a quiet wisdom about him. He charmed all of us ex-pats instantly with his bright eyes, gorgeous smile, and delicate demeanor.

Last week, on the morning of March 3rd, after a restless night of uncontrollable fits, our beloved Alpha, our delightful little basket seller, quietly passed away.

His distraught father, Amadu, now walks around crying and confused. He says he doesn’t understand why God took his beautiful and gentle boy. Nobody knows what illness killed him, but it was sudden enough that Alpha probably did not suffer very long. Unless of course, being the reasonable boy that he was, he kept silent about the headache pounding inside his head. He had mentioned it a couple of days earlier and was given tablets, which made him well enough to play with his friends. The relief did not last.

I am still stunned and finding it difficult to imagine Lakka, the small beach community many of us go to for fresh air and a relaxing swim, without him. Even after seeing the tiny mound of dusty soil covering his body in the village’s non-descript cemetery, I still expect to see Alpha cheerfully walk up along the shore, straw baskets dangling from his fingers.

He is what child mortality statistics look like. In SL, he is one of thousands of young children who will die this year.

But he was our Alpha. And we will miss him so very, very much.