A few days before my father died, he told us, “My journey may end today, it has been a good and enjoyable journey”. For a man of few words, those were precious. He lived for a few more days after that day and it was fascinating. It was almost as if he was moving back and forth between two dimensions – heavenly and earthly; spiritual and material. But his whole life, at least to us, was fascinating to say the least.
He was the third child of Dr. Üzielie Peseyie, who was one of the first medical Doctors amongst the Angamis, with the likes of Dr Khosa (father of J.B. Jasokie), Dr SevilieIralu, et al. His father died when he was 14 years old. In his own last days, my father vividly remembered how he saw his father die.
Kevikienyü married my mother Mrs Meno Khate in the year 1967. The same year he had an accident in his Jeep where his left leg was amputated from just below the knee. For the next 54 years until 2021, every single day, he had to engage in the laborious exercise of putting on and off his artificial prosthetic leg.
In 1991, he was given just a few hours to relinquish his government job because of the superannuation issue. This was one of the most crushing events in his life.
In 1997 he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Since then, every year, we saw how the cancer spread to the lungs, liver, bones and other parts of the body.
This was his life! Hard, harsh and cruel! But he preferred to say that it was “good and enjoyable!” And I believe it was. I had never heard him complain about his personal tragedy in my life. I have childhood memories of him playing hide-and-seek with us by hiding his detachable artificial leg under the curtain. We would see the artificial limb sticking out from behind the curtain and shout - “He’s hiding behind the curtain”, and pull away the curtain to find only the artificial limb. He had hopped off in one leg to another place to hide. He drove us to choir practices and tuitions and taught us how to drive. That limb gave him extra protection, he would say, when dogs came attacking.
He epitomised resilience, the power of the human spirit to thrive and overcome. But above all, his is a story of God’s faithfulness and grace that shines through the hard, harsh and cruel realities of life.
Kevikienyü’s mother Mrs Puno Meru Peseyie, spent the last 16 years of her life in the Pentecostal Faith Home in Kohima, devoting herself to a life of prayer 24/7. She died in 1998, a year after my father was diagnosed with cancer in 1997. I came to learn that my grandmother devoted much of her last year to praying for my dad’s cancer recovery.
My own mother Mrs Meno Peseyie who is no less a prayer warrior is a great embodiment of sacrificial and eternal love of Christ. She had always prayed that my father would not experience the pain of cancer. Even though the cancer had spread everywhere including the bones, my father died peacefully without any pain.
Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given”. They asked and it was given.
My father often proudly narrated the story of how the late Dr Setu Liegise took care of his father Dr Üzielie till his last day. Dr Setu came every day to their residence in Mission Compound to check on him and administer the medicine. One day his patient could not swallow three tablets. Dr Setu went away very sad that day. And a few hours later Dr Üzielie died.
Then later Dr Setu Liegise’s son, Dr Puse Liegise became his son-in-law and very able doctor. From day one of the cancer diagnosis till the end, Dr Puse Liegise had personally monitored and approved every single decision taken and every single medicine administered. And in the final years, Dr Puse’s son, Dr Visede Liegise, finished his medical studies and came and cared for his grandfather, holding his body as he died.
What an honour to be served by three generations of medical doctors from the Liegise family. This testimony of generational faithfulness and blessings will echo in eternity.
My father loved his profession. His office desk was his Altar where he worshipped God. That was his sacred space. For most of his service in the Government, he was placed in positions that invited a lot of bribes and favours from job-seekers and other companies. But he never compromised, at least to our knowledge. How he often shouted at those offering him bribes and favours was often an embarrassment at our home. As a young Bible College graduate, I often had to do the “dirty work” of returning “gifts, bribes” and bundles of cash back to those who had offered them. I remember how he shouted in foul and crude language at a person who had brought some “gifts”, or another time how he pushed away a man with a briefcase of cash down to our residence gate. He was rude and harsh. He was violent at times.
Once after a Sunday church service where I preached, a fine gentleman of the church told me, “Good, Kedo, you are not like your father.” When I heard that I felt like a failure, and I said in my mind, “What the Hell! Billions of bloody blue blistering barnacles! ≠@#¿$?*”(Don’t worry, no one heard me say that).
In a society that had become so corrupted and numb and feeling sexy about it, perhaps this is what integrity and purity will look like – violent, rude and socially awkward. I want to be like my father when I finally grow up.
My father did not often talk about his faith openly. But he lived out his faith well. His assurance of salvation and hope was exemplary. During his last days, he could not swallow food, but he would often say, “there is plenty of food where Jesus is”, and “I am going to the place where there is no more hunger”. And he kept saying, “I am not afraid to go, Jesus is with me”. At one point he even asked my Mum, “Do I have both my legs working well now?” This reminded me of what Joni Erickson Tada said (the lady who was paralysed from waist below), “The first thing I will do with my resurrected legs is to fall down on my knees in worship”.
This is hope of the New Heaven and the New Earth, where we will together enjoy the material Earth recreated, and our resurrected physical bodies perfectly restored.
My father is now resting in peace. He will rise in glory. We rejoice in Christ. And we wait in hope.
Kedo Peseyie.
Lower Bayavu Hill, Kohima.
kedo.peseyie@gmail.com