I was sick for a while. At one point, I was immobile. The sickness coincided with a pregnancy, which I lost along the way. The sickness got worse with each day. My husband complained as if it were my fault that I was sick. I spent all my money on medicine and hospital visits. At first, he was helping, but a few weeks later, he started telling me he didn’t have any money.

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One morning, I couldn’t get out of bed. I couldn’t feel my legs or my being. He said I should confess, suggesting I was cursed because of a sin I had committed against someone. I spent three weeks in the hospital. When I was brought back home, I still couldn’t function properly. My mom was by my side throughout my hospital days.

One morning, my mom told me, “Your husband says I should take you home and take care of you there.” I didn’t say anything, but when my husband came I asked him, “Why would you discuss such a thing with my mom first while I am right here?”

He answered, ”Yes, you have to go home with her and get better. If she leaves, who will take care of you?”

I still couldn’t walk properly, but my mom had to go back home to take care of her shop and was to come back later. She told my husband she was leaving. My husband asked, “Are you leaving with her?” My mom looked at me. I asked her to excuse us. It turned into an exchange of words where he told me he wasn’t going to spend a pesewa on me if I didn’t leave with my mom.

My mom left. A few days later, I realized I had made a mistake by not leaving with her. He would leave the house early in the morning and return late at night. I would call to ask him to buy me medicine or even a drink. He would come home empty-handed. I asked him to take me home, and the next weekend, I was in a car with him going to my parents’ house.

He handed me over to my parents and left without giving me any money or anything. He traveled back that same day. I had to call to ask if he was home. I had to call to ask him how he was doing. When I stopped calling, he didn’t call until nine days later. He asked me, “Why have you stopped calling me? Is that how to be married?”

I heard from him again a week later. My parents advised me to concentrate on my healing and stop thinking about a husband who didn’t care about me. May God bless my parents. They nursed me back to health in five months. Now I can walk, run, jump, and live life as if nothing happened. My husband never came back to see me again after he left me there.

My mom asked, “When are you going back home now that you’re healthy?” I asked, “Home? Do I have another home apart from here?” She answered, “How about your husband?” I said, “Do I have a husband? Have you seen him around here lately?”

I told them I wasn’t returning to that marriage and that they should help me through the divorce. My dad didn’t argue. My mom thought we could work things out since I was no longer sick.

I went back to the house to pick up my things. There was a lady in there with him. She was even wearing my slippers. I greeted them and walked straight to the bedroom. My things had been arranged perfectly and placed together. I looked at them and I cried. The lady was nowhere to be found when I came back to the hall carrying my bag. He asked me, “Where do you think you’re going?”

The tears wouldn’t stop, so I let them flow. He tried to stop me, but I pushed my way past him without a word.

He stood aside while I packed everything out. I got a taxi and left. Three days later, he was at my parents’ house looking for me. If my dad had his boyhood strength, my husband would have gone back home in pieces. He pushed him out and screamed that he was filthy and didn’t want his smelly skin around his home.

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His parents have come and gone. I am resolute. Nothing will take me back to that house or any house he’s in. It’s over for me. I pray he enjoys the love he found in that lady. When I was sick, I died. The wife he knew didn’t heal. She is gone with the sickness that nearly made a home of her body.

—Jennifer

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