Chief Babatunde Adeyemi, known as Baba Alaje in 1990s Ibadan, always fed strangers first. He gave them the best food and money meant for his children’s school fees or shoes, telling Ade, Funmi, and Tolu they could manage. His children grew up feeling second best. Ade sold water to finish school, Funmi married early to escape hunger, and Tolu fled to Lagos and cut all contact. Baba never saw their growing resentment.Old and weak by his seventies, Baba became blind and alone. The strangers he helped forgot him. His children barely replied: one sent money once, one kept delaying visits, and one blocked his number. He died alone in October 2023. At the burial his children stood like strangers with no tears. An old woman whispered the proverb: “A father who fed strangers before his children will eat alone in old age.” Family first is love and future security.