After a long time, yesterday I paid my friend Jane Baine a visit at her Sleek and Slender haven. We reminisced about the days (around 2008/2009/2010) when we would sit for many hours at this same balcony and talk about life using insights drawn from books. She introduced me to this book, “Tuesdays with Morrie” and the insights in it brought us even closer. It’s a book about living fully and getting used to the reality of death as an inevitable part of life. It completely changed my perception of life and death.
Our friendship was sparked by a book – After University, What Next? – which she saw at the reception if Uganda Martyrs University as she was waiting to see her son Mark, who was a student there then. She asked for my contact and we hooked up in 2007. She had gone ahead to buy and read a book, Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership, by Joc Jaworksi which I had quoted in my book. This was the spark of our conversation when we first met. Henceforth, when we met, our conversation is cemented by many other peoples powerful insights loosely tucked away in books like open secrets.
Today I am making this post to shine a bright beam on this wonderful human being. One of the very finest I have ever met. When you see how closely she relates with her children you will think she is just their elder sister both by physical appearance and emotional connection all grown up and married: Rachael, Michelle, Mark and Fiona – the only Ugandan PhD in Human Genetic that I know, married in Zimbabwe but currently working in South Africa. Jane is my parenting role model.
If you are stuck with life challenges and grappling with CHOICES, or you are trying to confront issues of a marriage falling apart, or even something as simple as weight and fitness concerns, you may want to find a way of befriending this lady for as long as she lives. You can check her out at Sleek and Slender, opposite the South Sudan embassy. (the road connecting Sheraton to Fairway Hotel). I call her life coach for people from all walks of life. She was made for this and she does it with ease and pleasure.
By Ambrose Kibuuka.
