‘Enough of this! I’m walking out of my marriage’

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Rita and Nelson met in a church crusade somewhere in Ogui Road, Enugu. The crusade lasted for a week. Nelson came seeking for God’s healing. He had been having some health issues right from age 35 and he was present at the crusade ground  having heard that the man of God for that crusade had raw power of God to heal and to perform signs and wonders.  An asthmatic  friend who actually  invited him,  insisted he should be present because he was healed at a crusade ground somewhere and sometime ago.

Rita too was present at the same crusade “because I needed to get married. I was over 30 and had been waiting on the Lord for my own man. I wasn’t desperate though, but my mum was. When she saw that my close friends were all married, she became anxious and was calling me on the phone regularly to remind me that my biological clock was ticking away. It got to the extent that I wanted to avoid her calls. I nearly stopped picking her calls. But trust mum, she wouldn’t give up. She kept sending text messages even when I refused to pick. She told me many times that my gifts and money I used to send to her were nothing compared with settling down in my matrimonial home with her grand children running around her whenever she comes visiting. I knew how troubled I used to feel in my mind each time I finished listening to her.

“I would sit down on my bed, facing my wall mirror and imagined how life would have been with all that my mum said to me. I imagined my husband cuddling me from behind with my children running around the living room or sitting down watching cartoon on TV. All those scenarios I created in my imagination and I saw the whole thing in my inner eyes.  I then wondered when it would come to pass. On my 32nd birthday, I refused to make noise about it. Unlike what I did when I clocked 30. I rolled out drums and celebrated with my friends. When mum heard about my birthday, her call was what woke me up in the morning because it was an all night party. I picked without checking on my phone to see whose number reflected. If I had known it was mum, I wouldn’t have picked because I already knew she would ask when my man would be coming. And that was exactly what she asked me; when I would be bringing a suitor home. She said I never brought anyone home and I had the audacity to make noise over my age without a man in my life. At that, I got really angry and pleaded to be left alone. When I hung up, she called and called three times before I picked asking what she wanted from me again . I heard her praying for me on the phone. I listened as she prayed, I felt her prayers in my bones. She was praying with vigour and I then closed my eyes and listened with tears dribbling down my cheeks. She too was crying as she prayed reminding God to cut short of the late marriage curse that was running  in her family line. I never knew that my grand mother too had late marriage just as my mum had. She never mentioned my late grand mother’s case to me. I only got to know  from her prayer. When she was done, we both said amen. She then spoke to me gently that I should be going to church, that I should be attending  crusades and be closer to God,” she said.

So, when Rita heard about the crusade that was taking place around Presidential Road, Ogui Road in Enugu, “I remembered my mother’s advice. I decided to attend and that was where I met Nelson.

To be continued.