Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika
Morayo Da Silva’s brightness and radiance almost blinds you as it jumps off the page. She is, what they call, a real character. A Nigerian immigrant now residing in a rent controlled apartment in San Francisco, where she has lived for 20 years, and she will not let her impending 75th birthday slow her down.
She walks her neighborhood in the “native attire” of Lagos. She’s friends with her mailman, and the Palestinian flower seller and local baker and the local cops, including the Italian American Mike, with whom she has a bond, and a neighbor, Mrs. Wong. She drives a sporty old Porsche named Buttercup.
Sarah Ladipo Manyika has written a delightful tale about a woman who has lived a life well-travelled, well read, full of love and sometimes pain and is now excited to plan her birthday party with an invitation list the reflects the broad swath of her friends. “I find that parties in which everyone is the same age aren’t much fun. I can’t have a party just for older people, and in any cases, chronological age aside, I don’t feel old.” She’s also planning on getting a tattoo.
The small details of everyday life awaken a memory and we can piece together a picture of her life. She enjoys wearing her native attire now and “when I open the folds of cloth I’m delighted to find the smell of Lagos markets still buried in the cotton – diesel fumes, hot palm oil, burning firewood.” Cleaning her glasses reminds her of the long drive from her hometown Jos, to the Kano Eye Hospital; a conversation with and Indian clerk at the DMV brings back her memories of the spice markets of India and how hard it was to perfect the multiple folds of wearing a sari.
Her apartment is a clutter of stuff – bills, papers and her beloved books, the surprising receptacles of yet more scenes from her life “I pull out a book at random and a postcard falls out. It’s one of his, of course. Fulani woman with bronze earrings. I flip it over again and trace each crafted line with my forefinger, then bring it to my nose and smile. ‘Eu te amo. Antonio,’ he’d signed.” She reminisces about her lover Antonio, a man who appealed to her romantic desires, after she finds out that her husband in fact, has another wife and children too.
For her birthday she treats herself to new shoes, this year they are “red and suede, and although they’re not cheap, or rather because they’re not cheap, they’re gorgeous.” She’s going to match the dress with pearls that have travelled with her across the world “from lunch with Mrs. Gandhi to tea at Buckingham Palace.”
It’s as Morayo is admiring her outfit, perched precariously on the edge of the bathtub to look in the mirror and contemplate the placement of a tattoo, that her world turns. “I twist for a better view and then, in mid-twist, I slip.”
This is the moment when the sunny disposition and vibrant demeanor of Morayo da Silva could dim and we could be in for a sad, mournful meditation on aging and the challenges of being an older woman alone. But Manyika resists that temptation. Yes, Morayo is cranky, even while acknowledging that she was lucky that her injuries weren’t worse. Still, she finds herself in a Rehabilitation Center and she doesn’t “like being this fragile and feeling this out of control.”
We move back and forth as we get a glimpse into her past life, and her challenge to manage now. We learn about her husband Ceasar, an older, confident, self-assured man who she married at the age of twenty-two. And we are introduced to Morayo’s indefatigable ability to connect with all sorts of people.
Her friend Sunshine comes to visit her and also makes the effort to sort out Morayo’s apartment and her papers and bring her her beloved books. Their relationship is tight, even though Sunshine is much younger, the mother of small children who is so enchanted by this older woman who has become her friend “Morayo was so uninhibited, so open and unconventional in comparison to most old people. There couldn’t be many women of her age who would choose to spend their savings on a beautiful sports car.”
Chapters alternate between the voice of Morayo and the random and not so random people she encounters in her life. Some peripheral to her and her story, and some clearly close: a homeless young woman; a substitute chef at the Rehabilitation Center; a man there caring for his wife who is losing her memory; Sunshine and her husband and children and it is through their encounters that the picture of Morayo is filled in.
You will come away from this book enchanted by Morayo da Silva and her attitude to getting old. She is a woman who has always lived life to the fullest and the mere fact of chronological age is not going to stop her. She will not go quietly into this dark night, she will light it ablaze every step of the way for as long as she has. And by the way, she's not giving up Buttercup anytime soon either.
BEFORE YOU READ
Length: 118 pages
Genre: Fiction
Themes: life, aging, friendship
Commitment: Read it in one sitting and add some brightness to your day
