I had a big shop in Kantamanto selling shoes, clothes, and other human accessories. The shop originally belonged to a friend who traveled abroad. Before he left, he asked me if I had interest in the shop. I was working a 9–5 job, but he assured me he could make his guys manage the shop for me while I continued with my office work.

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So I paid for the shop and also paid for the stock, which was not much at the time. Two years later, the shop was fetching me more money than my 9–5 could pay me. I was making four times my salary from the shop, so I decided to leave the office job and concentrate on the shop.

I was in the shop one day when this lady walked in holding locally made perfumes and scented candles of different sizes. She said her business was into making fragrances and she wanted me to have a feel of her perfumes. She sprayed quite a few on me, but my mind wasn’t even on the perfumes. I was looking at her, the enthusiasm and the smile she carried.

I bought a few and took her number to call just in case some friends of mine needed some. The next day, I called her to come to the shop because a friend needed a few, and she did. We talked. I bought a few in the name of my friend and later in the evening I sent her a message that my friends loved them.

I asked about her business and we spent a few minutes talking. I told her I liked her and the enthusiasm with which she sold, and that I wanted to be friends with her. Friendship grew into a relationship, and within a year, I knew I had to marry her. But she had a dream. All along, she told me about how bad business was and that she needed a job as a safety net while doing the business on the side.

Anytime I saw any job I thought she would fit, I showed it to her and asked her to apply. Some of them she ignored because she didn’t fit the qualifications. When the job wasn’t coming, I invested heavily in her perfume business to help her scale it and also get to a place where she wouldn’t consider a job necessary.

I think that made her trust a future with me, so she agreed for us to get married. A few months later, we had a wedding that made our hearts proud.

On our honeymoon, I saw a job online about a foreign NGO looking for locals to work with. My wife’s strong suits were marketing and customer service. They were looking for a personal assistant and front desk staff. I showed it to my wife and she said, “Front desk at this time?” I answered, “How about personal assistant? It’s a foreign company so it could be worth it.”

She only chuckled to register her disinterest. That very day, I applied for the job on her behalf. Two weeks later, she was called for an interview. She didn’t even know I had applied for her. After the interview, she was offered the job with a very good salary. She was going to assist the MD, who was Canadian.

She thanked me for not giving up on her and for the fact that I applied for her when she herself didn’t trust her abilities. Just before we celebrated our first anniversary in 2023, I had a call telling me there was a fire outbreak in Kantamanto and everything was burning.

My shop was included. I didn’t pick a shoe or even a lace. Everything was going up in smoke, even the weekly sales I had kept in the shop. I was shattered. That was my whole investment gone. While I cried, my wife kept telling me it was going to be well.

That was the beginning of my downfall as a man. My wife was taking care of us. That was also the time my wife was pregnant.

In early 2024, we had an argument. We had several arguments every day and I thought it was due to the stress of raising a baby. One day, my wife said, “I can’t continue taking care of you when all you do is sit here and argue and disrespect me. I’m going home.”

I thought she was speaking out of anger. She left with my daughter while I was pleading with her to stop. Later in the evening, I went to her house to speak to her parents to help me bring her back home. Her father said, “Your wife left home in the morning and you’re now coming to take her home? What if she couldn’t reach home? That shows how irresponsible you are as a man. You don’t deserve to marry my daughter. She’s not coming back.”

I apologized for coming late but he insisted I leave his house. Three months later, my wife was still not back. She would wait until I wasn’t home, then come and pick a bag or two and leave again.

I went back to see her again, this time with my father. My wife’s father talked to us as if we were beggars begging for crumbs in his house. He told my dad, “Ask him, it’s my daughter who takes care of him. She can’t continue taking care of a man who abuses her.”

My wife was seated there listening to her dad abuse us with words and lies. I called her name and asked if I had ever abused her and she responded, “Don’t you know not providing for the house is also abuse?”

My dad tapped my shoulder and asked us to leave. On the way, he told me, “Prepare for a divorce. Very soon they’ll initiate it and I want you to prepare for it.”

Just a week later, I was served with divorce papers. A few days later, her family came to ask for a divorce from my family. I told her, “Remember where I picked you from. Where you are now, I made it possible. I never treated you badly, so remember there’s a reward for everything we do.”

That day, we did the traditional divorce while we spent the later part of the year going up and down in court over the divorce. Finally, the divorce was granted. If there was one thing I picked up from the whole process, it was the strength to carry on.

I took loans to start all over again. It was scary, but I knew what I had made from that shop and I was eager to start again. As I write this, my shop is back running. It’s not as buoyant as it used to be, but time and tide are in my favor.

The NGO is done working in Ghana and has moved to Kenya. They went with some of the employees from Ghana, but my wife was left out. She’s back to where it all started. When she was actively working and traveling around, she didn’t call to ask me for child support, but these days if it delays for a few days, she is on my neck threatening me. It speaks to where she is in life currently.

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The last time I told her, “The child support is not your upkeep money. Get a job and stop fighting over it because very soon, I’m coming to assess how you use the money.”

She called it a threat and made her father call me. I swear that man regretted the day he was born when he called me. I gave him a proper dressing-down and warned him not to ever call my line again or it would be worse. He was quiet until he dropped the line. We’ll all pay for our sins while here on earth, and I’m glad I lived to see it.

—Ronald

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