A Nigerian man has shared a touching story about a retired professor who lost everything after spending most of his years abroad.
Taking to Twitter, the narrator with handle @Letter_to_Jack said that he helped the prof out of a gutter he had fallen into.
The academician had apparently been begging for money on the streets and he was shocked to hear him speak with a sound mastery of the English language.
The young man said he gave the man money and and bought food fo him as she shared his life story.
‘‘I helped a wandering man out of a ‘gutter’ that he fell into last night, I didn’t know who he was until he dusted himself and started speaking one of the most amazing English I’ve heard.
He is a retired professor, begging for money to eat, he looked lost and my heart sunk.
I asked him, “Sir, what do you want?” he said he’s cash strapped and he doesn’t have any money to eat.
Apparently, he started life very well, he lived the vibrant part of his whole life abroad (teens-60+), got married to a white lady, thought he was going to spend the rest of his life there, something happened and he lost everything, as he emphasized “EVERYTHING”
His 40 year old daughter won’t even see him, he was all alone.
Knowing he had nothing left and no one else, he returned back to Nigeria to look for his parents’ house. His parents were dead, he doesn’t know any of his family members, most are dead anyway, cos he’s 70+.
…nothing could make him return to Nigeria to live here. Now he’s a wanderer, warning people of the dangers of living life recklessly without caution with some brilliant eloquence. He also moved around with a file which contained all his means of identification.
They brought the food, I thanked him for the time and he walked away aimlessly until he faded from my sight.
I made my way home thinking of everything, especially the last line.. “When I was your age, I never thought I’d beg anyone for food ever in my life, life humbled me”
Some may ask if he was drunk and/or high… No, he wasn’t drunk or high on any substance to the best of my knowledge, he wore a well ironed cloth with awolowo cap, a tidy shoe and nice glasses.
He mentioned his name to me but I was too tired to grasp it…”
