We bring to you letters written by women to women they love, miss, cherish or just remember. To celebrate the support women continue to show each other, this is #ToHER.
From: Odunayo, who misses her crazy cousin
To: Oyinlola, the fun, waka waka cousin
Dear Oyinlola,
A letter I read reminded me of how much I’ve missed us since you travelled.
I don’t know what exactly made us so close, but I guess it was my frequent visits to your house during the holidays when I was four years old. I always looked forward to visiting you because you had a larger family than mine. Then you started coming to my house with your siblings and we found that we had so many things in common — fashion sense, straight-talking attitude and all.
We became inseparable. Even when you gained admission into the university in 2013, I was always waiting for you to come home so we could hang out. There was no one I’d rather gossip with about family, talk about relationships and the kind of woman I wanted to grow into.
And when I got into university in 2018, I made sure you were the first person I came home to see, except you were away. I miss those random visits to see other family members, the late nights and waka waka, like on my birthday. We left Ikorodu for Lekki at night, got there very late, ate pizza, and walked around like our dad owned the land despite the insecurity in this country. But I wasn’t bothered. When we were together, we felt so safe and unbothered.
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I definitely miss our craziness. Remember when I was 18 and we visited our other cousin’s place and begged him to get us alcohol? You were 21 and old enough to drink, but we’d always fantasised about getting drunk together. And as expected, after drinking, we acted like goofballs, slept off and woke up at intervals whenever one of our phones rang because we had the same ringtone.
Then there was that guy spilling rubbish because we refused to talk to him on the road. Of course, we insulted him. What about the days we spent at Ilorin during your service year? I’d just gotten into uni and you were always proud to introduce me to everyone as your baby sister.
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I miss you so much, Oyin. There’s nobody to call me saying, “Odunayo, where are you? Come na, let’s have a nice time.” Nobody to drag me out of the house and tell me that I’m too serious with life. I can’t even go to the island for the Sallah holiday because you’re not there. Who will I talk to or record funny Snapchat videos with?
I’m just glad we could utilise every moment we’ve spent together since we were kids. Now that you’re in a completely different country, I can hold onto those crazy memories. There was no dull moment with you. And you’re one of the best people I’ve had in my life.
Also, thanks for the urgent ₦2k you used to send whenever sapa choked me in school.
Missing you,
Odunayo
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