The Fresh Start

The day started on a very poor note
Perhaps it was because he slept on
the anger of the previous day
He got home that day and met a note
on the table informing him that his
wife had left for her parent’s house
for the sixth time in seven days
because her father was mildly ill
It had become the norm since
they got married
He initially felt it was cool to be
married to a lady with such a
strong family bond
As time went on he realized a strong
family bond tend to skew people’s
thinking in a certain way…
The outsider was always the enemy,
the gaijin
Whenever they had an issue, his
parents in law will take their
daughter’s side
When they had their first child, their
daughter refused to take immunization
for the baby because she couldn’t bear
anybody poking her daughter with an
injection
It was a silly reason and he objected
Her parents stood by her decision
Her father walked out of his flat
because he dared raise his voice in
defense of his one-day-old daughter
who could get infected and die
because of the foolishness of his wife
It was foolishness on display
And to think that his wife’s parents
were
educated and actually immunized
their own children?
Emotion can sometimes make a fool
of the wise
His crime was insisting the immunization
had to be done despite his wife’s
protestations which were based on an
irrational mindset
The immunization would actually help
the baby rathe
-r than harm her
He lost the argument and he was miffed
He could barely sleep all night
He kept paying attention to the breathing
of the baby, hoping she wouldn’t just
die from all the germs she might have
been exposed to
By 5 AM he couldn’t bear it anymore,
the baby woke up crying for food
His wife got up from the bed and started
breastfeeding the baby
He got up from the bed, hissed, and said
“You’re actually breastfeeding that baby.
Dont you know you’re infecting her with
your foolishness? Wow”
He didn’t think before speaking
He really shouldn’t
have said such, but he did
He dressed up and left for the office, by
the time he got home in the evening,
his wife was gone
She packed everything
He walked into an empty flat
His neighbors told him his parents in
law came with some people and packed
everything
He called his mother
His mother told him to calm down
His initial reaction was to report the
incident at a police station and get
everybody arrested
His mother heard him screaming on the
phone and knew he was coming loose
at the seams
His mother prevailed upon him to be
calm
Somehow wisdom prevailed
He left his flat for a hotel
The next morning, he tried calling his
wife
He found out his phone number had
been barred and his social media
accounts also blocked
He called his brother-in-law, it rang out
He waited for an hour and called his
father-in-law
His father-in-law picked
his call and told him he had to keep
away from the family for some time
as he was too toxic for the mental
health of their daughter
That was the verdict
He called his mother and siblings
one after the other to share what
had happened
Everybody told him to calm down
He listened
He lived the next few months as if
his head was in a fog
He went to work daily and returned
to a sparsely furnished apartment
He missed his wife and child but try
as he did, he had been shut out of
their lives
He visited his wife’s parents and
begged them
They told him to make
peace with his wife as they cannot
tell him her whereabouts
He tried her friends
Nobody gave him any information
The only consolation he got was from
one of his wife’s cousins who shared
with him some pictures of his wife and
child from time to time
He was angry at first but as
months rolled by, he settled for just
having his family back and being
grateful
His wife left in October 2015
In June 2017, he got a message at
the office
It was from his wife
He was asked to rush down to a
hospital on Lagos Island for a blood test
Their child was sick and might
need blood transfusion
He got to the hospital
The doctor told him the child was
rushed to the hospital late and the
symptoms point to polio
He was shocked
The doctor said the child had been
sick for some time but was not brought
to the hospital on time
He said it would have been
easier to treat the disease earlier
before things got out of hand
The doctor asked his wife for the
immunization card
His wife was just looking like a
mouse in the mouth of a cat
Dumb-Yes- That was the word
She looked like she had a pile of
rubbish all over her face
The doctors
tried their best
The baby didn’t make it
He didn’t say a word to anybody
Not to her or her parents
(He met her father and mother at
the reception of the hospital as he
was leaving)
He didn’t even greet them
He just needed his space and his
sanity
He wasn’t given the chance to
have any emotional connection with
the child
He saw his child for just one day
before she was whisked away by
his mother
He didn’t even bother seeing her
after she was pronounced dead
He really had no business burying
a body he didn’t kill
He was just angry
Angry is a silent kind
of way but he knew he was going
to be alright
He took some time off work that day,
sat at home and watched some of
his favorite movies
Patriot Games, Lord of the Rings,
Saving Private Ryan, The Shawshank
Redemption
He cried a little
Remembering how he met his wife
at a conference
how he got suckered by her fluent
English and carriage
He regretted the day he met her
He came from a broken home and
he had sworn he would do everything
in his power not to have a broken home
He had been through so much but
he was determined to keep his family
at all cost
The death of his daughter was a
huge blow
Three days after, his father in law
called him for a meeting
He said “Yes sir” but he was not in
the mood
So when Saturday came, he drove to
the sports field to play some football
and spent the rest of the day attending
to some office work
He never failed to call his father-in-law
once every week for the two years his
wife was away from home
He called to get updates and to send
some money for the upkeep of his child
Not once did his father-in-law called
to say “Let’s settle this misunderstanding”
or “How are you?”
They had the leverage at the time
He got home that evening and met his
wife sitting by his entrance
Wow.
It was the last thing he could ever
hope to see with his two eyes
She actually sat and waited for him
hoping he would come home
When he got to the door, she greeted him
He smiled, opened the door, walked in
and locked the door
He didn’t do it in a hurry
He simply didn’t acknowledge her
presence
The next morning, at about 9am during
the church service
His wife and parents arrived at the
church he was attending
He saw them walk in because he was an
usher
After service, they went in to see the
pastor
The pastor called him into the office
after about an hour
As soon as he walked in his wife went
on her knees and started crying
Her parents apologized
The pastor told him to let bygones
be gone
“Lift your wife off her knees and
hug her”said the Pastor
They all saw him as such a simpleton
Someone they could just order to do
things the way they desire, like a
zombie
That was the thought that came to
his mind
He hadn’t even given the future some
thought or considered his position
regarding the marriage but
what he saw in the pastor’s office was
such a put-off
It made him feel disregarded and
disrespected
Like they had all assumed that he
would just do as they desire because
he had no backbone
He didn’t say a word
He turned around and left the pastor’s
office
WHen he got home he
packed all his clothes into his car
He moved to a hotel on Lagos Island
It was located about seven minutes
walk away from his office
His wife called several times
His father-in-law also called
The pastor too called several times
He blocked them all
He just wanted to be alone
He
just wanted to be free
After three months, his wife sent him
a message
“Give me a divorce and set me free if
you really don’t want me anymore”
He didn’t even reply to the message
What would be the point of taking the bait
She was dead to him
In October 2019, he met the brother
in Jeans and T-shirt
They got talking on WhatsApp
He told his story
He wanted to know how to proceed
with remarrying and moving on with
his life
He also wanted to know how to walk
with the Holy Spirit effectively
The conversation led to a fellowship
and a baptism of the Holy
Spirit
Two months later, he relocated to
the USA
In January 2020, he met a Nigerian
single mother at a mall in Chicago
They got talking
She had a four-year-old daughter
with her ex-husband
She and her ex were into voodoo
She became a believer
Her ex left her
He really loved her
They got married three months later
The marriage was witnessed by a
few friends
The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt
blessed the marriage over zoom
mobile call
The family was established in righteousness
In February 2021, they were blessed
with Jason, their son
He also got a very
good job with a technological firm
with a shocking salary that was a huge
testimony on its own
He acknowledged that the Holy Spirit
led him into his new reality and it had
all been joy and gladness

PS: Are you looking to start all over?
Send me a message on [email protected]
or [email protected]
In Him we have all things
Hallelujah