WHEN LIFE BECOMES ‘HELL ON EARTH’ Shade’s story below, is one of hardship, misery, pains and discomfort that accompany trials and in various degrees through physical, emotional, spiritual and financial circumstances. Trials can be ‘hell on earth.’ Shade was born in the mid sixties. Her mother was her father’s mistress whom he met while serving in the Nigerian Army. Eventually, her father’s family members prevailed on him to accommodate his daughter and keep her under his watchful eyes. That was where her hell on earth began. She never had a decent childhood. She was treated with so much disdain and made to serve as the maid-servant as she was saddled with the responsibility of keeping the house clean and running errands. The others went to private schools while she went to a public school. Once in a while, she saw her mother who encouraged her to manage the situation and comforted her as much as she could as her stay in her father’s house was her only guarantee of having an education. According to her “my mother always told me I would rule over the family some day and I believed her, not because I had the prowess but because she was the only one in the world who showed me love and that strengthened me.” Shade got pregnant in her sixth form in Secondary School. And her father wasted no time in sending her out of his life. Luckily, her boyfriend who was just 19 years old accepted the pregnancy. His parents were not rich either but he loved Shade and they both decided to stick to each other. They both had to do menial jobs to survive to keep body and soul together and take care of the baby. Eventually, they got married and before long they became wealthy even as young as they were and began living a life Shade’s siblings could only dream of. Shade went into business and traveled back and forth to different countries. She specialized in leather shoes and bags and had her own shoe-line. Just like her mother said, she became the most successful of all her father’s children and ruled over them though she stayed away as much as possible but treated them with great respect. Her success was most shocking and overwhelming even to her and she knew her siblings were very envious of her no matter how humble she remained and so she thought it wise to keep her distance. Also, she had a beautiful marriage and was toast of the town. Their 3 children went to the best schools and got every good thing youngsters could wish for. Her husband came home one day and suggested they relocate to Italy where they both traveled very often for business. Shade was very excited because that meant an expansion of her leather business as she would be more in control of the production and export to other countries. They decided to sell the houses they both built and other properties including Shade’s plots of land. Jide traveled with all the proceeds of the sales and all their savings to put things in place. Shade stopped hearing from him 3weeks after he left Nigeria. Life became a very bad dream as the darkest days of her life set in. Her husband’s family members who had treated her with love turned their back against her. All efforts to reach her husband were futile. She sold the gold jewelry she had left to pay her children’s school fees but after a while, she could not afford to keep them in the private school any longer. Eventually, she heard her husband had settled down in London with a new wife. During this period, their last child had an asthma attack and died. This affected her health adversely as she developed a high blood pressure and suffered a partial stroke. Her former sales girl whom she had been generous to and set up in business took care of her and gave her some money to start a small business. She relocated to Ibadan and started running a small canteen with the help of her remaining 2 children. The canteen was where they lived. One day, her only daughter was kidnapped by a notorious gang and gang-raped. She was found almost life-less 2 days later. Shade watches her once bright and beautiful daughter in great pain every day as she refuses to talk to anyone and has attempted suicide a number of times. Shade is depressed, tired of life and secretly wants to commit suicide. She needs your advice to deal with her situation. Who knows, your suggestions could make a difference and jump-start her back to life. Please send your advice and suggestions to this email address: temiloluokeowo@gmail
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 16:48:16 +0000
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