When Karma comes calling…

When Karma Comes Calling…

I just couldn’t help sharing this story that a sister sent to me! “I am still grateful to a woman that I should hate. God used her to make me the woman that I am today.It was in the early 80s. An uncle came for me-in our tiny village (somewhere in the present Enugu State).

According to him, a woman that had come from obodo oyibo (abroad) was looking for a child minder. I was barely 15 years of age then and the only education I had was elementary school.The obodo oyibo in the equation was more than enough for me. I just wanted to go.

We set out to go meet my Madam. Next day… we set out to Lagos, where my documents were processed and we left for England-in a matter of days.
Thus began my nightmare…That woman was most abusive to not only me but her husband as well. A very quiet man.

I lost count of how many times she attacked him physically and he would simply wipe the blood off his body and retreat to his room.I kept asking myself…is this what they meant when it is claimed that women have so much power in Obodo Oyibo?

Probably why ‘Oga’ was not retaliating. I was in her house when she had her last two babies…making four children altogether. The abuse didn’t abate but by this time…I was almost 19 years of age. I had also caught the attention of a young white man in the neighbourhood.

He, it was, who ensured I didn’t have to survive on the leftover foods that my madam fed me over the years.He had a way of sneaking stuffs to me or I would find a reason to do something outside the house.

I still struggle to remember any day that I was served food straight from the pot. I ate my own food when every other person had finished eating because I had to put the leftovers together-to eat.

My ‘secret’ relationship with the white man (who is my husband now by the way) progressed and he couldn’t believe it when he saw the scars on my body.So, the next time my madam hit me. He called the police. And that was the day that I also left my Madam and moved in with him.But before I left her house. Something (interesting) happened. Her husband left for work one day and didn’t come back. Later, we learned that he was back to Nigeria.

You kind of wonder what could make a man leave everything behind and RUN. It was claimed that he arrived Nigeria with only a hand luggage.
And that’s a man that had a fairly comfortable life abroad before engaging folks back home to find a wife for him.

According to ‘gists’…the woman he settled for was the least educated but the most beautiful. I learned that he struggled a lot to stabilise himself back home…dabbling into so many ventures that probably took a toll on his health. He had a stroke that paralysed one part of his body.

Madam reluctantly went home to see him but I learned that her reaction to his condition was more of a taunt. It was claimed that even while on a sick bed-the man refused to follow her back. He didn’t really recover from that ordeal when he had a second stroke that rendered him ‘vegetative’…which he died from.

Whenever I think of that man, I shudder at what some people bring upon themselves in the name of marriage. Worse so…marrying for looks and not character. Yet, people don’t learn.

Oh yes, I married my ‘Oyibo in shining armour’-LOL!He sent me back to school and we have three kids between us. They have all left home. But this is not the end of the story.Most instructive is my Madam’s end as well. While her husband was on sick bed-she sent him divorce papers to sign.Although, nothing was heard of the marriage afterwards, she died some years back. Her health took a nosedive. You know “when money is not a problem” YET-no cure?

According to a family friend that I met through them…her end was messy. When things take a certain turn, you find yourself asking, “has karma come calling?” People dread the issue of karma but life still ensures that we reap what we sow-one way or the other.And it doesn’t mean that God has not forgiven. He could forgive and still let life teach you a few lessons.

I learned that she became a born again a few years to her death. She even stopped wearing jewelleries. But I say…things must not get so bad before you find God.Seek God through your daily existence’’