‘Life has been unfair to me’ (2)

a model

Here is the conclusion of Sandra and Eugene’s story started last week. Sandra and Eugene got married and all seemed to be going on well until the devil threw in a spanner in the marriage. 

Four days later, Sandra came back to the same hospital having severe contractions. That was when she observed ‘show’ on her panties and she was brought back to the hospital carrying her bag where the things she would be needing for labour were packed. But the mistake of sneaking out of the hospital even when she was admitted cost her a lot. “I regretted leaving the hospital because at the time I started having contractions, what was dribbling out of me changed. I knew it that I had been infected but I never knew the infection would have affected my unborn baby. When I got in, my doctor asked why I left, I couldn’t answer because I was crying. My contractions became stiffer and stiffer. I only managed to answer when those stiff contractions subsided. When I was examined, my doctor said my baby was getting distressed and that I needed to go for Caesarean Section else my baby may not make it,” she said. Sandra was rushed to the theater and as it had been the tradition of her doctor to ask patient to lead them in a short prayer, “I was asked to pray. I started! I prayed and prayed until the doctor said amen, that God has heard. That was the last thing I could remember.

 My baby was brought out alive but I was seriously infected. My water that broke became pus which my unborn baby even drank while in the tummy. According to my elder sister who was in the hospital with me, she said my doctor had to call her into the theatre and showed her pus he was scooping out of me. And told her that it was why he admitted me so that I would be placed on mild antibiotics to prevent infection. That since my water broke, there was nothing preventing me and my unborn baby from infection,” she enthused. Sandra had a successful surgery. Her baby, a boy only lived for two days and died. “Though the poor thing was placed on anti biotic but my doctor said the pus in its system caused the death. I cried so bitterly that I refused to be consoled. I cried as if I knew it was my last baby and it later was my last baby. Pregnancy became difficult for me. I couldn’t take in again. I even stopped ovulating and all the medications I was receiving from my doctor that ought to have induced ovulation were not working for me. After ten years of having my last baby that died, I never missed my flow. The worst was that I got married in my mid 30s with the intension of having my children without giving much space because age wasn’t on my side. When I clocked 45, my blood sugar triggered up and I was diagnosed as a diabetic patient. I was placed on drugs which I was taking on a daily basis. My doctor told me that chances of getting pregnant at my age coupled with my diabetic condition was minimal. My husband showed concern really but he stopped being bothered about me getting pregnant. I never knew that he went to his village some years back, married a younger girl, kept her in the village and that she had already given him two children. Yes, two boys! Little wonder he stopped being curious about my childless situation. And his mother stopped writing begging me to give her son children as if it was in my place to do so. Children were good gifts from God was always my reply to her letters,” she recalled. When Sandra wasn’t seeing her husband regularly at home was when she suspected something fishy. “He was always traveling to village to spend weeks, at times months. I never knew he had another family there. One day I confronted him and we fought. I fought him and he never laid his hands on me. He never believed in hitting a woman. What he did was to ask me to park and leave. I though he wasn’t serious. I thought he would beg me or apologize. I parked my things and he took me straight to my parents’ family house in Aba and told them what I did to him. How I fought him so mercilessly that neighbours had to come to his rescue. He showed them bruises he sustained because I gave him serious bites. My parents pitied him. He gave them some good money and told them that they were still his parents-in-law and that he would continue to play the role of a son-in-law in their lives regardless of what happened. But that I should stay with them until I changed. Those were his last words before he left. When I waited close to a year and I didn’t see him, I became worried. But he continued giving my parents their monthly allowance. He was now paying into my mother’s account. My parents hated me for what I did especially my dad. “Each time I visited him, I would found my house under lock and key. I then decided to check on him in his village. That was when I saw a shocker of my life. I saw his two children and his wife. He was shocked to see me because he never invited me. He asked me to leave and stay with my parents until he came for me. He insisted I leave, gave me some money which I refused to collect from him. When I was walking to the closest bus stop, I saw his wife running after me. ‘Auntie please accept this money, you may have need of it.’ “I looked at her and I saw pity in her eyes for me. I asked her why she took my husband from me. She wanted to talk but didn’t know where to start from. She only managed to say that I’m the senior wife and that she owned me lots of respect and of course her two sons were mine too. That they would call me mum. I took the money and hopped into a cab. Since that time, my husband never bothered to look for me. Aside from when my dad died, he was present. He took charge and people were thinking he was my elder brother I never had. My younger brother had him to look up to. He helped financially and the burial was okay. He left and never returned again. Though he continued to pay in some feeding allowance into my mum’s account but he never bothered to ask of me. When I threatened him that I may remarry, he gave me a shocker. He said if that would give me joy, that I should go ahead,” she stressed. Sandra is worried. At 49 she is her parents’ house and the way villagers now look at her doesn’t make her happy. Now she feels life has been unkind to her. Readers, what do you advice her to do?