My wife was four months pregnant when she lost her job. That was when COVID was new and no one knew what was going to happen to them the next day. She came home looking very sad. When I asked her what the issue was, she began to cry; “They’ve asked me to stay home. They said they’re going to call me when things turn to normal.” She lost the job she had been doing for the past six years. If the job I was doing paid me very well, I wouldn’t have bothered. After all, COVID wasn’t friendly to pregnant women. I would have taken it as a favor done us so my wife would stay home without exposing herself to risk.
That wasn’t the situation. My wife’s salary was better than what I was earning. She was the mortar that kept the household together. I remember waking up each day thinking of what next to do. Apart from that, I had to try my very best to bring encouragement to the life of my wife. She was pregnant and had lost her job. She was getting depressed thinking about the whole thing. Thinking of how we were going to pay rent, pay utilities, and have a two square meal each day. I told her often, “It’s not the end of the world. We have life, that’s the most important thing. As for a job, you can always get something better to do as far as there’s life.
Some days the motivation worked. Other times, it did very little but we moved. I woke up each morning, dressed up, and said goodbye to my wife, and went to work. I came home in the evening, sometimes bearing some gift to cheer her up. To tell her that everything wasn’t lost. Until one morning, I went to work and was called to the HR’s office. Her face didn’t look like someone who had good news to offer. She cleared her throat and said, “You see, things are hard around here. If we continue operating as though everything is alright, the company would run down the hill and everything and everyone around here would go down with it. We needed to make changes to reflect the changing times. That meant cutting down the number of staff we have around here and unfortunately, you’re one of the people who has to go.”
Immediately she said that I threw myself on the floor, begging her to reconsider her decision; “My wife lost her job just three months ago. She’s pregnant with our second baby. I swear the two of us can’t survive this period if you send me home.” I was on the floor. I even tried to hold her leg and put my forehead on the floor just so she gets to know how desperate I am. She said, “This is not my decision. Even my position here is not safe. I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do about it.” That day after work, I didn’t know whether to go home or just vanish into thin air and leave the world and its problems behind. “What Am I going to tell my wife? That I had also lost my job? I swear she would die if she gets to know that. She’s pregnant, how much more shock can she contain?”
I thought about it all the way home and came up with the decision that I wasn’t going to tell her I’d lost my job until she gives birth. If the child is out of the way, her system would be strong enough to take another bad news. I was going to put up the charade of my life for the next two or three months and I did. I went home that day and pretended everything was alright. It was hard. She sensed it from my demeanor but I told her I was alright.
I woke up each morning, dressed up, picked my bag, and said goodbye to her. I would go and sit at the mall or any public place and scan through online job portals looking for job opportunities. Somedays, I had one or two and I applied. Some days I found the names of the institutions and went there myself to deliver my CV. Looking for a new job became my full-time job. Some job agencies called, asked me to pay money for registration and all that before I could get an interview. I didn’t have that money to waste on them. I moved. A few weeks later, I started getting interviews. I attended a few and they promised to call back but never did.
As the weeks rolled, we kept depleting the little we had in our accounts. I prayed for a miracle but everywhere I turned to was bleak. It looked like companies were rather in the mood of laying people off than employing others. I started thinking of how I was going to pay medical bills when my wife goes to deliver. I started getting scared. The embarrassment that I would feel when my wife is detained at the hospital because we were not able to pay the bills. I called my senior brother and told him about my situation. He promised to be there when the time comes. I believed him not to tell anyone that’s why I confided in him.
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One afternoon, I was at the mall watching cartoons on one of the TVs on sales there when I had a call. The voice said, “Mr. Adams, you’ve been given the role you interviewed for but it’s subject to your availability since the company needs someone to fill up immediately.” I told her, “I can start today even if you want me to.” She told me, “In that case, you can come around tomorrow for your appointment.” Come around? Come around where? I didn’t even know the company she was speaking from. I had attended so many interviews I’d lost track of which is which. She said, “Come to where you attended the interview.” I said politely, “Mom, I’ve attended so many interviews in the last two months. Would you please remind me where this is?”
She laughed and said, “I can understand.” She showed me and the next day I was there for my appointment. The salary was better than the previous work and it had flexible terms of work than the previous one. On my way home, my wife called; “I’m at the hospital. I think my time is due.” I went to the hospital and that same evening, she delivered a baby girl. Had it not been my brother who came through for us that day, indeed, we would have been locked up in there for not being able to pay our bills. But the most important thing was that I had a job that could cater to our needs going forward.
The day she was discharged from the hospital, I told her, “I’ve found a new job. The salary is better than the previous one. Way better so there’s no need to worry again.” She said, “You can still get a job in this Corona season? You’re one of the lucky few.” She was happy for us but was still worried about when she was going to get a job for herself. I didn’t tell her what I went through. The storm was over. There was no need to re-live the whole episode again. We needed to enjoy our new baby and the new job the Lord had given me.
