I was the lastborn for six years until my younger siblings were born. Before them, I got everything I wanted, so I was a bit pampered and spoiled. After the twins came, everything changed. The pampering reduced, and my mom hardly took care of me the same way she used to.

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By age six, I was solely responsible for bathing myself. I am sure that’s why I developed severe body odour when I became an adolescent. It was so bad that I always cried and prayed to God to heal me. My mum also tried different remedies—lime, ash, mint powder—but nothing worked. Sometimes one armpit would stop smelling, but the other would still smell.

Because I was pampered as a child, I also didn’t like doing chores. I did well in school, but I refused to learn anything domestic. Everyone insulted me because of this. They called me a fool. “You have ‘school sense’ but no ‘home sense’, which means you lack common sense,” they would mock me.

Even when I placed 3rd in class, they would laugh at me, saying, “If she got 3rd, then that class must be full of fools.”

To them, they were joking but their words crushed me.

Some of my sisters also called me ugly. They said I had a big nose. These people made me think of myself as the ugliest girl alive. I hated mirrors. So imagine my struggles at that age. I believed I was ugly and then I smelled terribly. Oh, I struggled with bed wetting too.

Thankfully, not everyone mocked me. Most of my brothers told me I was beautiful, and even one of my sisters confirmed it. That gave me a little confidence, but the early damage had already been done. When I grew older, people, including some of my sisters’ boyfriends and husbands, complimented me. I only believed I was truly beautiful when my dad also called me beautiful one day.

Due to my sisters’ bullying, I didn’t consider my family a safe space. I confided more in friends than family. It didn’t help matters that my mum constantly insulted me, while my dad said nothing in my defence. I am not saying he didn’t care about us, he tried. He had a habit of calling each of us one by one to ask about school and our dreams, but whenever it was my turn, I’d just sit quietly and pretend to be sleepy so he would let me go.

One thing my mum did that completely broke me was when she told my teacher and friends about the bedwetting. One day, the teacher announced it at assembly, and everyone laughed at me. It crushed my spirit. It also made me hate my mum.

My dad tried to help me. He would wake me up in the middle of the night to urinate. His efforts inspired my mum to also start helping. She started praying with me, teaching me scriptures and even laying hands on me. I let her do it but I still disliked her for the hurt she caused me.

On 7th September 2012, I gave my life to Christ. That was the day my bedwetting stopped. At first, I didn’t realise it. I thought it was just a lucky night, but by December my mum herself confirmed that I had stopped. Later, my elder brother told me he had also been praying for me. I was happy to know my brother didn’t mock me like everyone else did.

Although the bedwetting ended, the body odour continued. I wore heavy jackets all the time, even in the heat, just to hide it. Teachers mocked me in school. One deliberately called me out in class and asked another student to smell me. She covered her nose in disgust, and I felt humiliated. Another time another teacher said, “Some of you smell like goats; I wonder if you even bathe.” Those words pierced me deeply.

My mom tried to help me with the odour, I will give her that. She bought me deodorants and sprays, but nothing worked. In SHS, my roommates mocked me. It was bad enough for me to cry in secret and even wish for death sometimes.

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Through it all, I held onto my faith. My last desperate prayer was in December before I entered college. I said: “God, I’ve suffered with this odour since I was 10. Now I’m 20, about to start college. Do you want me to be mocked there too? How will I even find a husband if I smell? God, this is my last prayer. If You don’t take it away, then maybe this is my fate.”

Fast forward to January 2020, I was cleaning the house after we returned from the village. I was dirty, sweaty, and hadn’t bathed all morning. But something strange happened—I didn’t smell. I kept checking myself, smelling over and over, but there was nothing. I asked my favourite elder sister to also smell me, and she confirmed I didn’t smell. Right there, I knew: God had healed me.

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Since then, my confidence has grown. I forgave everyone who mocked me and found peace in my heart. Now, I’m close to my mum and dad. Also, I no longer resent my siblings. The twins are even my closest friends.

My experience has taught me that no matter the situation, whether physical or spiritual, God delivers. What He cannot do does not exist.

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—Laura

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