Page 30 - Number 2 2021 Volume 74

18 The Society of Malaŵi Journal

always reply in the affirmative and they inevitably follow with a “Oh wow, you
know she taught me,” or at times, “she taught my sister.”
Being an educator unlike many other careers is a calling. Granny was
well aware of this and touched generations of students who had the privilege of
passing through her classroom. Still long after she retired, the teacher in her never
did. Growing up I remember how she was particularly keen on our performance
in school during our visits to New York. In between our television show bingeing
or games of hide and seek in their sprawling estate, she’d always find time for us
to go through a few exercises or check how we were coming along with our
summer reading. Those moments instilled an appreciation for learning and spurred
a desire to gain more knowledge as we progressed in school.
Though education made up a big part of her life, another would be the
enigma that was Professor David Rubadiri. Long before academia, the
ambassadorial roles and literary accomplishments, they would meet at a bus stop
in 1955. It’s rather poetic, isn’t it? Babu was on holiday in Malawi and the two
were introduced by a mutual friend. Granny says they would correspond over the
school phone while their relationship blossomed. It was hardly the life she
imagined for herself. After all she wanted to be a nun. And so, before she took the
step to be in a committed relationship she prayed. God answered in a dream.
“In the dream I saw a church and it was in the shape of a cross. As soon
as I entered the church, your grandfather was the only one who stood in the church
for me,” she fondly recounted.
They eventually got married on the second Saturday of September in
1957, a date Babu had suggested. Granny says when they had settled on the date
that was September 14 , they were oblivious to the fact that it was the Day of the
th
Cross. “It just confirmed my dream and I said, ‘Wow!’” Granny exclaimed.
Over six decades of a marriage punctuated by some historic and
memorable moments that shaped the continent of Africa, but most importantly left
a legacy of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren that bear the Rubadiri
th
name with pride. Their love story would end however on September 15 2018 the
day Babu breathed his last. And as it so happened it was a day after their 61
st
wedding anniversary.
“It seemed like God said you will have 61 years of marriage and not an
extra day,” she chuckled at the thought of God’s divine timing.
It was no doubt a love story written by God. A beautiful 61 chapters of a
life well and fully lived by Gertrude Mabel Olive Rubadiri.