OSUWAKE
Episode 13
I arrived home safely. I met my mum in tatters – she was suffering seriously. She had started menstruating again. It has been more than a decade since she saw her last menstrual flow.
Since the time she gave birth to our lastborn over ten years now; it stopped then and now it has resurfaced again.
It wondered her greatly as as she couldn’t fathom what was going on that period. She was thinking it will pause and disappear but it never did. Rather, it became more serious and threatening. She became so uncomfortable and over burdened as a result of the bleeding.
They took her to our state Teaching hospital, series of tests were carried out immediately and it was discovered that she had cancer of the womb! The worst of it all was that, they said she had barely three(3) months to live.
But, they did not tell her – they informed only our uncles who took her to the hospital for checkup.
So, as they returned home, one of the people that knew about the secret exposed it to my mum and that’s how she got knowledge of it.
My mum was a friendly woman and liked people a lot.
She used that opportunity and began serious evangelism. She preached to people and neglected the fact she was going to die within the next three months.
Three months passed by and she didn’t die to the surprise of those who knew the secret of her already pronounced death. She intensified her evengelisn and used it as a yardstick to preach to people. She was a living witness, as three months had expired and she was still alive to the glory of God. She was very happy as she didn’t die.
After that scenario, her condition started taking another shape. The periodic menstrual flow will come sometimes twice or thrice in a month. After the flow stopped, pus started coming out of her body. It was very scary and frustrating for all of us. She was indeed transiting into the worst moment of her life.
She even started having offensive and despicable smells within her body. The very worst has started happening. It was a moment of unexplainable and unfathomable events!
We took her to the hospital for check ups again. The doctor’s assertions further complicated the whole situation and made it look more scary and disgusting.
According to the doctor, the cancer had liberated her womb – the womb has been cut off, it was now inside her body and that was solely responsible for the offensive smells emanating from her body.
Sad moment for a poor woman!
Sad moment for a poor mother!
Sad moment for a loving and
Caring mother living like a
Widow!
Sad moment for the downtrodden!
It was indeed a sad moment for all of us. The odds had conspired to deprive a woman ‘the bountiful harvest of motherhood’. She couldn’t even enjoy her marriage – not even when her very first love was the husband. It never mattered to the forces behind her trivails. They showed no mercy and pitied no one.
It was furrher revealed that blood was no longer running to her heart. It got to a point she was unable to do anything. She couldn’t eat! She couldn’t walk! It even affected her tongue and she was unable to eat. Her husband, my dad was nowhere to be found.
To further compound her woes, she had pile on top of the pre-existing problems.
we were treating the cancer, her damaged tongue and pile at the same time. This was happening to a woman who had giving up everything to marriage right from the infant age of fourteen(14). Every night, i will wash clothes till infinity. Her urine wasn’t friendly at all. It was a revolting sight to behold.
I was acting like a life support to her. I do most things for her; I feed her but the time her tongue damaged, she was unable to eat. She only cries and coudn’t close her eyes at night. She had unending and traumatic sleepless nights.
she was tired but still professed her love for my dad – the most mysterious part of it all!
“Love, indeed, is a mystery!”
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There was one of my distant uncle who happens to be a medical pratisioner, he normally issues my mum sleeping pills to calm her nerves and enable her to sleep at night but it never worked on her.
I washed clothes minutes by minutes, as long as she urinates. She was unable to excrete faeces as a result of the pile. So, we usually give her pap every morning but we stopped when her tongue damaged because she couldn’t eat anything.
After sometime, i got tired and frustrated. She screams at night and cries so bitterly – she was always restless. I called my sister and urged her to come and support me as I could not take care of her alone; The things I was seeing then was bigger than me.
she came and we joined hands to take care of her including our big aunty that was accommodating us and few of our uncles as well – some were very supportive then.
According to my mum. She really loves my dad but believes he and his people were the ones keeping her in such condition. It was after her triumph in the court, of which my dad was suppose to pay her one million naira as damages for marrying her at Yizef Stories the age of fourteen(14) while she was still a child and thirty thousand monthly for our upkeep.
my dad paid only once and never paid again. It was after she used that money, she started seeing changes in her body which resulted to her present predicament.
we could not do anything then rather than to console her and give her enormous hopes of survival. At a point, she started noticing that, she was becoming a burden to us and endured her pain alone.
one night, I was crying because I was having serious menstrual pains; she inquired why I was crying and I told her immedaitely.
“do you know how i feel every night?”
“No!” I replied
“just like your menstrual pains! This one was like labour, a woman in labour who wants to give birth to a child”. She narrated in self pity.
“whenever it comes, I feel like I want to give birth again”
Immediately she said this, I felt her pain and had wondered the kind of trauma she was going through that moment. The both of us cried and encouraged each other. We sang songs together and helped her with almost all the things she was unable to do herself.
It got to a point, we were all tired of everything. She was not giving us any hope of survival. We just wished she should go and rest to be free from all this trauma. It was so over bearing with no end in sight.
one day, she stood up and we held her because she was like a baby – she couldn’t walk very well. She went inside my uncle’s room and played music; she danced to it and after some minutes, she collapsed to the ground. We carried her up and she started crying uncontrollable. She was telling us that we didn’t know how she was feeling at all.
“It seems I will not make it this week! as if I will die today or tomorow” She said to us tearfully.
we tried to console her and assured her that everything will soom be fine. Meanwhile, the time she fell down, she urinated and when she perceived her own urine..
“I’m a dead human being. Can’t you see?”
we assured her that she was not dead but still alive and will soon overcome her predicament.
our church members usually comes to visit her, they sing songs to motivate, encourage and keep her hopes of survival alive.
the most damaging part of her situation was very disheartening. she had not excreted faeces for several months running – like for close to seven (7) months. She had not used the toilet. This was a real life experience!
I could not believe it myself each time I narrowed my mind to that fact.
One night, during the time the pile was really going deep inside her body because we were aware of the numerous changes in her body system. She cried so bitterly and said so many things like some body who was already seeing her death.
that same night, she crawled to me and blessed me after I had quarrelled her the previous day out of frustration and hopelessness. I yelled at her aggressively but that singular act of mine still torments me till date. She touched me and prayed for me and everybody. I felt her touch deeply and compassionately. It was a mother’s unmixed love and affection for her child. I held her tightly and we cuddled each other, assuring her of her chances of survival. I believed somehow, she will pull through and overcome.
To be continued..
Love indeed is mysterious! The hands are blunt and the heart is cold!
A life story saturated with intrigues, controversies and life struggles.
written by: ©️Emeka Nwobu
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What a tragidy