The Fresh Start

The day started on a very poor note
Perhaps it was because he slept on 
the anger of the previous day
He got home that day and met a note 
on the table informing him that his 
wife had left for her parent's house 
for the sixth time in seven days 
because her father was mildly ill 
It had become the norm since 
they got married
He initially felt it was cool to be 
married to a lady with such a 
strong family bond
As time went on he realized a strong 
family bond tend to skew people's 
thinking in a certain way...
The outsider was always the enemy, 
the gaijin 
Whenever they had an issue, his 
parents in law will take their
 daughter's side
When they had their first child, their 
daughter refused to take immunization 
for the baby because she couldn't bear 
anybody poking her daughter with an 
injection
It was a silly reason and he objected 
Her parents stood by her decision
Her father walked out of his flat 
because he dared raise his voice in 
defense of his one-day-old daughter 
who could get infected and die 
because of the foolishness of his wife
It was foolishness on display
And to think that his wife's parents 
were 
educated and actually immunized 
their own children?
Emotion can sometimes make a fool 
of the wise
His crime was insisting the immunization 
had to be done despite his wife's 
protestations which were based on an 
irrational mindset
The immunization would actually help 
the baby rathe 
-r than harm her
He lost the argument and he was miffed
He could barely sleep all night
He kept paying attention to the breathing 
of the baby, hoping she wouldn't just 
die from all the germs she might have 
been exposed to
By 5 AM he couldn't bear it anymore, 
the baby woke up crying for food
His wife got up from the bed and started 
breastfeeding the baby
He got up from the bed, hissed, and said 
"You're actually breastfeeding that baby. 
Dont you know you're infecting her with 
your foolishness? Wow"
He didn't think before speaking
He really shouldn't 
have said such, but he did
He dressed up and left for the office, by 
the time he got home in the evening, 
his wife was gone
She packed everything
He walked into an empty flat
His neighbors told him his parents in 
law came with some people and packed 
everything
He called his mother 
His mother told him to calm down
His initial reaction was to report the 
incident at a police station and get 
everybody arrested
His mother heard him screaming on the 
phone and knew he was coming loose 
at the seams
His mother prevailed upon him to be 
calm
Somehow wisdom prevailed 
He left his flat for a hotel
The next morning, he tried calling his 
wife
He found out his phone number had 
been barred and his social media 
accounts also blocked
He called his brother-in-law, it rang out
He waited for an hour and called his 
father-in-law
His father-in-law picked 
his call and told him he had to keep 
away from the family for some time 
as he was too toxic for the mental 
health of their daughter
That was the verdict
He called his mother and siblings 
one after the other to share what 
had happened
Everybody told him to calm down
He listened 
He lived the next few months as if 
his head was in a fog
He went to work daily and returned 
to a sparsely furnished apartment
He missed his wife and child but try 
as he did, he had been shut out of 
their lives
He visited his wife's parents and 
begged them
They told him to make 
peace with his wife as they cannot 
tell him her whereabouts
He tried her friends
Nobody gave him any information
The only consolation he got was from 
one of his wife's cousins who shared 
with him some pictures of his wife and 
child from time to time
He was angry at first but as 
months rolled by, he settled for just 
having his family back and being 
grateful
His wife left in October 2015
In June 2017, he got a message at 
the office
It was from his wife
He was asked to rush down to a 
hospital on Lagos Island for a blood test
Their child was sick and might 
need blood transfusion
He got to the hospital
The doctor told him the child was 
rushed to the hospital late and the 
symptoms point to polio
He was shocked
The doctor said the child had been 
sick for some time but was not brought 
to the hospital on time
He said it would have been 
easier to treat the disease earlier 
before things got out of hand
The doctor asked his wife for the 
immunization card
His wife was just looking like a 
mouse in the mouth of a cat
Dumb-Yes- That was the word
She looked like she had a pile of 
rubbish all over her face
The doctors 
tried their best
The baby didn't make it
He didn't say a word to anybody
Not to her or her parents 
(He met her father and mother at 
the reception of the hospital as he 
was leaving)
He didn't even greet them
He just needed his space and his 
sanity
He wasn't given the chance to 
have any emotional connection with 
the child
He saw his child for just one day 
before she was whisked away by 
his mother
He didn't even bother seeing her 
after she was pronounced dead
He really had no business burying 
a body he didn't kill
He was just angry
Angry is a silent kind 
of way but he knew he was going 
to be alright
He took some time off work that day, 
sat at home and watched some of 
his favorite movies
Patriot Games, Lord of the Rings, 
Saving Private Ryan, The Shawshank 
Redemption
He cried a little
Remembering how he met his wife 
at a conference 
how he got suckered by her fluent 
English and carriage
He regretted the day he met her
He came from a broken home and 
he had sworn he would do everything 
in his power not to have a broken home
He had been through so much but 
he was determined to keep his family 
at all cost
The death of his daughter was a 
huge blow
Three days after, his father in law 
called him for a meeting
He said "Yes sir" but he was not in 
the mood
So when Saturday came, he drove to 
the sports field to play some football 
and spent the rest of the day attending 
to some office work 
He never failed to call his father-in-law 
once every week for the two years his 
wife was away from home
He called to get updates and to send 
some money for the upkeep of his child
Not once did his father-in-law called 
to say "Let's settle this misunderstanding" 
or "How are you?" 
They had the leverage at the time
He got home that evening and met his 
wife sitting by his entrance
Wow.
It was the last thing he could ever 
hope to see with his two eyes
She actually sat and waited for him 
hoping he would come home
When he got to the door, she greeted him
He smiled, opened the door, walked in 
and locked the door
He didn't do it in a hurry
He simply didn't acknowledge her 
presence
The next morning, at about 9am during 
the church service
His wife and parents arrived at the 
church he was attending
He saw them walk in because he was an 
usher
After service, they went in to see the 
pastor
The pastor called him into the office 
after about an hour
As soon as he walked in his wife went 
on her knees and started crying
Her parents apologized
The pastor told him to let bygones 
be gone
"Lift your wife off her knees and 
hug her"said the Pastor
They all saw him as such a simpleton
Someone they could just order to do 
things the way they desire, like a 
zombie
That was the thought that came to 
his mind
He hadn't even given the future some 
thought or considered his position 
regarding the marriage but 
what he saw in the pastor's office was 
such a put-off
It made him feel disregarded and 
disrespected
Like they had all assumed that he 
would just do as they desire because 
he had no backbone
He didn't say a word
He turned around and left the pastor's 
office
WHen he got home he 
packed all his clothes into his car
He moved to a hotel on Lagos Island
It was located about seven minutes 
walk away from his office
His wife called several times
His father-in-law also called
The pastor too called several times
He blocked them all
He just wanted to be alone
He 
just wanted to be free
After three months, his wife sent him 
a message
"Give me a divorce and set me free if 
you really don't want me anymore"
He didn't even reply to the message
What would be the point of taking the bait
She was dead to him
In October 2019, he met the brother 
in Jeans and T-shirt
They got talking on WhatsApp
He told his story
He wanted to know how to proceed 
with remarrying and moving on with 
his life
He also wanted to know how to walk 
with the Holy Spirit effectively
The conversation led to a fellowship 
and a baptism of the Holy 
Spirit
Two months later, he relocated to 
the USA
In January 2020, he met a Nigerian 
single mother at a mall in Chicago
They got talking
She had a four-year-old daughter 
with her ex-husband
She and her ex were into voodoo
She became a believer
Her ex left her
He really loved her 
They got married three months later
The marriage was witnessed by a 
few friends
The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt 
blessed the marriage over zoom 
mobile call
The family was established in righteousness
In February 2021, they were blessed 
with Jason, their son
He also got a very 
good job with a technological firm 
with a shocking salary that was a huge 
testimony on its own
He acknowledged that the Holy Spirit 
led him into his new reality and it had 
all been joy and gladness

PS: Are you looking to start all over? 
Send me a message on gsw@gswmi.com
or gbengasamuelwemimo@gmail.com
In Him we have all things
Hallelujah