If you haven’t read the first part of this story, here’s the link. Kindly read it before starting this one.

No matter how strong you are the weight gets to you sometimes. You’ll be too tired and will want to drop everything and run. I got to that point. I prayed about it. I nagged about it. I sat him down and had a conversation about it but nothing was changing. The more I tried, the more he became overly possessive and unkind to my situation. I told him one day, “It looks like you don’t want me to be married to you any longer. Next time I won’t talk. I will pack what’s in my name and leave the house for you. I can’t take this any longer and I’m not going to sit here and bear it till eternity. I’m tired!

He screamed back, “You think I’m not tired of you too? You think it’s my pleasure to watch you ignore me? Or you think I would have been here had it not been my situation. Don’t wait till next time. You can pack and go now and I will be better without you.” And then he mumbled, “Who knows, you might even be the one behind my situation. Just go.”

That night, I went to the bathroom and decided not to come out again, I put the shower on, and cried my heart out. They say no one sees your tears when you cry under the shower but I could feel the warmth of my tears on my face. I kept crying until I heard our child crying outside. “Maybe he’s looking for me.” I turned off the shower, wiped myself clean, and stepped out. The next weekend I asked him, “I’m going to visit your parents would you like to join me?” I said it three times. He looked at my face and ignored me. I thought he was going to ask me why I was going to visit his parents but he never uttered a word. I strapped the boy behind me and left him in the house.

His parents were very happy to see me. Ever since the accident, they had been very supportive and had come around very often to see us. His father always praised me for staying with his son. He would tell me, “A woman like you is hard to find these days.” I would smile and say, “Your son is a good man and I’m lucky to have him.” Even when his attitude was burning me beneath my cloth, I still maintained a great posture and said all the good things. That day when I was with his parents, I couldn’t hold myself together. Immediately I opened my mouth, I started crying. I said, “I can’t continue any longer. I want to run away with our son and come no more.”

His father was shocked. He asked, “I thought you two were doing great. What happened?” I told him everything while crying through it all. They were shocked to hear me say all that. His mother said, “If you didn’t come to tell us yourself and someone told us, we wouldn’t have believed it. Why is he doing all that to a loving wife like you?” His father said, “My daughter, don’t cry, I will talk to him and things will change. Just relax and let see what happens. If he continues treating you this way after talking to him, I will personally come to your house and drag him out of the house.”

I returned from work the other day and saw him sleeping on the sofa with his phone lying next to him. Someone was calling but he wasn’t picking the phone. I tapped him and said, “Your phone is calling. He said, “I know. I’m not ready to talk.” I walked into the bedroom and changed. I was at the kitchen dishing out food when the woman who comes in to babysit our child walked up to me and said, “This afternoon I saw your husband crying. He’s been quiet all day. Please find out what is wrong with him.” I asked, “Seriously? He saw you looking at him and he continued crying?” She said, “She didn’t see me walking in.”

I served his food but he didn’t touch it. I asked him, “Is anything the matter?” He shook his head. He said, “I’m fine. I’m not hungry.” I sat next to him. We watched TV all night till I saw him dozing off. When we went to bed I asked him again, “What’s the issue with you? You’ve been too quiet for my liking?” He said, “I need to start working. I’m thinking of what I can do looking at my condition.” I said, “That’s great. I’m ready to help. You have a great CV, you should get a job very soon.” And then he said, “My dad called. He sends his regards.”

Then it dawned on me that his father might have called him. From that day he didn’t talk a lot. He was always on his laptop doing something. I started putting words out there on his behalf. Everyone I knew that could help him, I talked to them about him. One day he had a call for an interview. That call lighted his mood all day. You could see he had regained something that was lost long ago. He was alive. he spoke to me softly he didn’t sit still. After the interview, he was happier than before. Days later, I was at work when he called to tell me he didn’t get the job. He slumped back but I cheered him up. He had an interview again. It was a teaching job. He attended and later got the job. 

READ ALSO: What Will Make A Mother Hate Her Own Child?

I saw him smile one day and I said to myself, “He’s back to life again.” Because I knew that smile. There’s a portrait of him in our bedroom. He was wearing that same smile. He goes to teach and comes back looking fulfilled. We no longer fight. If you hear him talking, then he’s talking about his students. You hear him laughing and it’s about his job as a teacher. It looks like a vacuum had been filled in his heart and he’s back to life again. 

One day his father called and asked me how he’s doing. I told him about all the transformations in his life; the job, the smiles. The fact that we no longer fight and the newfound joy. He said, “I’m glad he listened. I asked him, “What did you tell him?” He said, “I told him the truth. I told him if he doesn’t put his life in order and he losses you, he would be the loneliest person alive because no one would be there for him.” I said, “Then it changed him.” He said, “He knew the truth, he was only trying to bully you because of his condition.”

We’ve been good since then. He experienced the toughest times during the lockdown. I think the feeling of uselessness crept back into his heart. The fact that he could not do anything affected his morale but I was there. I tried to keep him busy and together, we made it through. It’s still not easy but it’s easier than I could ever hope for. we can only appreciate how far we had come and hope for a better day ahead. 

–Abebi, Nigeria

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