I wouldn't call it a coincidence but in a way it was; for I got to meet 'the woman with the baby again'.
You remember the woman with a baby I sighted from my balcony, who was so distorted that I wished I had asked her what troubled her?
Well, I met her again. She looked better than last time. Her hair was plainted in a neat weaving, the navy blue gown she wore brought out her beautiful figure. She looked really good.
She was the one that actually recognized me and approached with a lovely smile on her face.
At first I was taken aback by who could the stranger be.
I responded to her greeting and she introduced herself.
She said her name is Gloria. She came to the town junction to get baby food.
I then asked her the question I wished I had asked her the first time I met her.
Why were you looking so haggard, troubled and confused that day?
This is her story :
She lost her husband four months ago and was buried a month before I met her.
She married for only two years and has a six months old baby.
Her husband got sick after being out with friends. The doctor diagnosed poisoning. He developed stomachaches, couldn't keep food down in his system.
Everything was done to save him but it didn't work. One day he just vomited over and over again still he gave up.
Honestly, I felt her pain. Losing at 25 years old wasn't something anyone prayed for.
She continued by telling me that her husband's people took over the husbands affairs. Seized the ATM cards; got the pin code from her and emptied the bank accounts.
All in the name of 'they are putting things in place for the burial'. Seriously?
After the burial, things became worse. She barely had food to eat. She and the late husband lived the family compound, so she was constantly humiliated.
It got to a point where she was asked to choose any of her husband's brothers to remarry. I couldn't believe my ears; in this age and time, this was still going on. Unbelievable!
She bluntly refused. She was told that if she ever decides to remarry outside the family that she would have to forgo her son.
Honestly, her suffering increased left, right and centre. Till she couldn't bare it anymore. She began to plot her escape.
An opening came and she left; which was the first time I met her.
She's back at her father's house and recovering marvelously well.
Her father helped her secure a teaching job at a newly established nursery school at her village.
I really admired her for picking up her life and living again; in which I told her so.
She responded by saying "it's not been easy, but I had to live for my son. God has really helped me and used my family to support me".
I got her phone number and even added two to three things to her baby food shopping.
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