Rest In Peace big brother Patrick

Mr and Mrs Aredo inspect a rugby team that includes their children.
FACEBOOK PHOTO

Rest In Peace big brother Patrick!

ON Wednesday September 4, 2019 I was browsing through Facebook like I rarely do, when I noticed Patrick had posted a photograph of two people I could not recognize until I read the 'caption' which stated that one of them was Oliver Aredo!
This conversation followed,

Louis Jadwong:  Oliver! Not seen him for 40 years...like :-)
Patrick Mileke: Louis Jadwong ,you are rare in Tororo. I see more of Nera than you
Louis Jadwong: That's what I was saying, I left 40 years ago! You guys I pray are Ok, we need some kind of re-union, to cry and laugh, and enjoy like the old days.
Louis Jadwong: Say Hi to Oliver...will check on him next time I am in Tororo - get me contacts
Patrick Mileke: Louis Jadwong , Senior Quarters ,38 Masaba Road
Louis Jadwong: Ah..just there, 100m away? Ok, thanks for that update (Post Liked by Patrick Mileke)

On Sunday September 8, 2019, I again happened to browse through Facebook, and I came across Julie Nabwire mourning a loss, with PATRICK MILEKE tagged! 

When I recovered from that shock, it occurred to me that the 4th September Facebook chat was actually my last conversation with Patrick; a good bye in many ways. While it was Oliver I aimed to see, it will be Patrick I will find at Senior Quarters ,38 Masaba Road – in a different state! Oliver I will certainly see – under mournful circumstances. 

The 1980s in Tororo

We simply called him Patrick because there were three brothers in the family, Oliver, Patrick and Peter....all Aredos. I only learnt of Patrick’s surname Mileke a year or two ago. For a moment I wondered who was being talked about, with other people even adding the title 'mzee' now. Time flies!

The Aredos moved to Tororo from Jinja when I was in Primary 7 or Senior 1... an Inspector Of Schools' family. Theirs was a caring and down to earth mom with three boys and I guess four girls - one of them adopted. From where we were, they were a model family in very many ways. I looked up to the boys – the  footballing geniuses Oliver and Peter, and especially Patrick who set the academic pace then by joining Makerere University.

We lived 200 meters's apart on Osukuru Road in Senior Quarters, and since our dads were cousins, the families were close, with Mrs Josephine Aredo playing an important role in resolving many health problems that dragged me down in those early years.

After my A-levels, I left Tororo and 'never returned', which explains the conversation on Facebook on September 4. A lot of water as you can imagine has flowed under the bridge since.... Mum Aredo passed on, then their elder sister, followed by Peter, then Dad Aredo, then one of the young sisters just recently! It is only 'Nera' (Dad in Tororo) who represented us during all these sad times.

In decades, we talked once or twice with Patrick and Deborah Sifuna, with the very last being at the burial of Martin Obbo in 2014, when for the first time, they met my wife Lydia. You can imagine the excitement there was on their faces!

I had planned to make up by visiting Patrick, and particularly hoped to get a chance to meet his boys – Erasmus, Gabriel and Joseph – who are now famous because of their outstanding rugby skills. All three of them had stormed the national rugby scene soon after I had moved on from the New Vision Sports Desk, where I had been editor for nearly 20 years. Just imagine the kind of coverage these 'sons' of mine would have gotten!

Patrick was like a big brother.... always challenging, teasing, joking with this tiny very intelligent young man - for that is what I was those days. We all looked up to him....and others like the God Father of our twins, Francis Orono  and, my other cousin Dr. Stephen Owor, who had made it to Makerere University, which we all aimed to get to. He laughed about nearly everything, making what was heavy look light in the process, and setting new challenges.

When I promised that the next time I would be in Tororo I would check on Senior Quarters,38 Masaba Road, I did not know it would be to say bye to Patrick. That's God's plan, and pray it includes you RESTING IN ETERNAL PEACE.