Lost Glory (episode 1) [in case you missed it]

TRUE LIFE STORY

GET...OUT... OF... MY...LIFE...TUN
DE...SILLY
You know how much I really love you “Jumoke....I would really like us to get married as soon as possible honestly. What else do you want from me that I have not done to make you happy? For 1 hour now you have refused to say why you are upset with me. What did I do wrong? Okay, I don’t know what I did wrong, or that I am doing wrong at the moment, I sincerely apologise my dear, just speak to me....just one word”.
(Tunde moved closer to Jumoke to hold her hand. She snapped her hand out of his and pulled further away).
“I’m pregnant....9 weeks...! She blurted out angrily”.
“Pregnant? Oh my days...you are pregnant? You are pregnant for me? Thank you Lord, thank you God I am going to be a father. And you too a mother. Is that why you have been angry? This is a thing of joy. Children are God’s heritage my dear. I am so happy. Thank you Jumoke. Thank you so much. I am going to pamper you and the baby. Let me call my parents and inform them. This is a good news.”
“No no no no, don’t call anyone please, and don’t tell anybody. This was a mistake that was not supposed to happen and I am not happy with it. We are not married, you are not my husband, we are workers in the church, it happened and I regret it happened.”
“Sweetheart, this baby is not a mistake. Our child is not a mistake. Yes, having sex when we have not been joined together as husband and wife was a mistake. We should have maintained the promise of chastity till marriage that we made for each other. Yes, we allowed ourselves to get carried away and I will hold myself responsible for that error of judgement.
But as for this baby, it is God’s gift to us. God knows we love each other and we really want to get married. And like I said, it is good news to me and I will never see the baby as a n error. Our moment of lust for each other was an error, but it was God that allowed the baby to be conceived. Some people have been trying out for years and they have not been answered. We only did it once and there we are.....our first child is on the way.”
“Look at you? Are you not ashamed of this baby? Are you not mindful of what people will say? Why are you men not shameful like this? If you are ready for shame I am not?”
What shame? Look my dear, we sinned to our bodies and to God and only He can forgive us. All we have to do is to both go to the pastor to break the news, he will inform the church board, they will call us out, and we will serve our punishment in good fate. That is the price we will pay as workers in the church. And once we finish serving our punishment, the church will pray for us and we can return to our departments. By that time, our wedding day will be very close by and this same people that will punish us will also be the ones to bless and rejoice with us.”
“Shut up please. Can’t you think proper? That’s baby’s gibberish talk. What punishment? You are so ridiculous for God’s sake. If you don’t have sense, I have one. It is not you and I that will be shamed together in front of 5000 people.”
“Ah...I should shut up? I don’t have sense? There is no need for insults now. This was the same mouth you used constantly to profess your love for me and to decree in faith the number of children you will have for me. So what happened in the last 3 months that I started noticing your cold attitude to me?”
“Hey Hey Hey Hey, please stop that rubbish now. Who is acting cold? Can’t I act anyhow I like again? I have not said ‘I DO’ yet and you are already witch hunting me? In fact, you can take your leave now. I want to rest.”
“Ah ha....seriously? Just like that? I should leave? Jumoke....it’s me”
“So? Can’t I sleep in my own house again? Or...was it because you rented the apartment for me you now believe you control me or I owe you a ‘yes sir’ all the time? Nonsense! You can leave when you want to. And please, you can give me the spare key to my flat that you have with you as I have misplaced mine”
“Ah...ah...Jummy, devil is a liar. What is going on here? We were not fighting before no.....”
(Screaming at the top of her voice)
“”GET...OUT... OF... MY...LIFE...TUN
DE...SILLY. Is it by force I must marry you or be pregnant for you? Get Outttttt. I am done with you’.
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Tunde woke up 2 days later at the Teaching Hospital in Lagos. He struggled hard to move his legs as they were heavy.
He looked down and both legs were in POP casts. His younger sister walked in just about the time Tunde wants to scream for help. She quickly called their parents and their pastor who were resting somewhere at the visitor’s lounge.
They took time to calm him down narrating to him how he was so lucky to have escaped with his life as he only got away with a double fracture in one leg and multiple fractures in the other.
They told him his new 505 Peugeot was a wreck as he drove straight into a 911 truck that was bringing goods from the Northern part of the country into Lagos, and that it was the timely swerving of the truck driver that saved the situation from a full head-on collision.
He asked after Jummy and they told him she showed up the day after his accident but said nothing.
5 weeks later....
Tunde’s life was shattered in his recuperating bed.
A hand delivered letter.....7 lines.....
“Do not look for me again”.
“I have taken care of your baby.”
“He is resting in peace”.
“Will be getting married in 2 months to a God-given man”.
“Will become a resident of West Germany hopefully before Christmas”
“I have found my own bone”
Go and find your own flesh”
He passed out again.
When he woke up, he wished he was dead in the accident. He started losing his mind.
A student doctor attached to him and other patients decided not to go home after her duty as she sensed he might totally lose it before the next morning.
She had seen and read the letter she picked up on the floor after Tunde screamed ‘ahhhh...you killed my baby Jumoke’ and then passed out.
Every time he woke up, he will mutter the words ‘you killed my baby Jumoke...you have killed me’ and he will pass out again.
So the student doctor gave herself up to his cause to spend the night by his side along with Tunde’s mother.
Every time Tunde suddenly screamed ‘Jumoke’, the student doctor would answer as Jumoke and calm him down telling him that his baby is okay. He will ask ‘Looto?’ (Truly?), and she would say yes.
The student doctor’s second name was Jumoke. She was more known by outsiders as Doctor Rachel her baptismal name, but at home...she answered to Jumoke.
She had just come back to the country to complete a necessary part of her medical course which touched on Management of Tropical African diseases. Her last 8 years had been spent in the South Eastern part of England. She did her College and A-Levels there, came back to Nigeria briefly before she was sent back to go and start her medical course.
So to Doctor Rachel Jumoke, she understood that the first 24-48 hours of a person about to lose his mind are very important. Whatever that is set in the imagination of such a person will determine if a rescuing can take place or not.
She knew a ‘miraculous Jumoke’ must be there with him to reassure him or else he may be lost totally to mental illness. Tunde needed a Jumoke replacement and she slotted in. Not his sister or mother can save him....only a Jumoke...and Doctor Rachel Jumoke was at his service....along with the prayers of the saints.
After a full year of recuperation, Tunde was back on his feet though with a slight limp. He almost lost the muscles in his legs. With Doctor Jumoke still around, she was able to suggest one of the the few physiotherapists left in the country that could attend to him to Tunde’s parents who have really warmed up to her.
The first Jumoke was totally gone. Shebwas married to a man that claimed he came from West Germany. Actually, he went to East Germany on scholarship and got stranded. He attempted to cross to West Germany and he got caught and was deported to Nigeria.
He never made it back to the West despite all his multiple attempts. He became irritable and violent towards Jumoke his wife who had not being able to conceive immediately as they thought.
Dr Rachel Jumoke went back to England to complete her programme. And in a bid to help Tunde get back to high speed with his recuperation, she facilitated his travel documents in no time. She would be responsible for his health care she told the Home Office.
Tunde’s parents were top working class couple, so the could support them more financially.
16 months later, Tunde called his parents to break the good news to them that Dr Rachel Jumoke had agreed to marry him. His sister could not stop crying for joy as she jumped around the house. She herself had fallen in love with Dr Jay as she popularly called her. They were about the same age though with the Doctor slightly older in months.
Exactly 2 and a half years after his old Jumoke-induced accident, Dr Rachel Jumoke was married to Engineer Tunde in a small family and friends gathering in Kent, England. This was in 1989.
After 8 miserable years in the hands of an East German deportee wannabe, Jumoke was thrown out of her matrimonial home. Life totally shattered. Everywhere she went, she was told that except a miracle from God happened, she medically cannot become pregnant again her life. The abortion she did tampered with one of her reproductive organs.
Nigeria in the mid 90s and under the heavy weights of military dictators saw the exit of many medical professionals and experts. It was a massive brain drain. The country was running out of medical experts that could have helped her and her chances went slimmer.
From man to man she moved and got quickly dumped once they discovered she could never be pregnant.
Breakthrough came in the early 2000s for her. They discovered a very tiny fragment of skull bone in her womb lining was the cause of her predicament.
The aborted baby’s skull was crushed in the process and a tiny piece was left in her womb thereby sending a hormonal message sort off to the brain as if a baby was occupying the womb, and the brain was sending message to the rest of the reproductive organs not to allow any conception to take place again as an occupant is already there.
Literally speaking....her body has been fighting and defending itself. Fighting any conception from taking place believing it has to defend the occupant of the womb which has still refused to grow. The occupant was just a tiny spec of bone from the skull of the murdered baby.
Unfortunately, Jumoke had crossed into her Menopause period by the time the breakthrough came through modern technologies arriving into the country in early 2000s. It was too great but too late. She accepted her fate in good faith. She was the reason for her misjudgment.
Her greed shattered her promising life. Many times she had driven past the family home of her beloved Tunde just to see if by chance she can see him and apologise. She had heard of how things changed for good for him and how a student doctor came to his rescue just about the time her own life was seeing the genesis of her long troubled years.
She almost wept herself to death when she finally learnt that Tunde’s family members had all travelled out for his wedding. That morning, she got the beating of her life from her husband who had come home after 4 days of straying off the grid and not coming home. She had confronted him as she had been scared to death. Out of care she confronted her husband that Saturday morning, and she will never forget in her life how he attempted dropping her off from their 2nd rented flat in Surulere. She wished she had been patient and not be tempted.
Jumoke died last year 2017 after battling series of illness. She found peace with Tunde who she met briefly in 2015 when he and his family came around for his father’s burial. She wept and apologised. Tunde was speechless as his mind fought off old emotions that he was only able to bury through the help of his wife who also doubled as a psychologist.
It was Dr Jumoke that consoled the other Jumoke that almost made her husband run mad. She was still beautiful even with the quick ageing process that had worn her out. She saw health mismanagement and guinea pig experiment in her. Many doctors and pharmacists have used her without her knowledge as experiments for drugs they prescribed or imported into the country. She couldn’t believe the amount of unnecessary medications she had taken just to get pregnant again and fight off depression and illnesses that made her body their abode. It was her loss and her own gain.
She died peacefully in sick bed having found peace with God and everyone she betrayed in her miscalculated greed. She repented and was not afraid of death when it came calling. Her body had been wounded and brutalised. She was broken but her spirit found joy as it ebbed away to her maker.
The word she left behind for her carer was - ‘many times, bronze may appear like gold....don’t throw away your silver yet’.
OUR WORD:
Truly speaking. Many times, bronze does appear like a gold. Do not throw away your silver yet and hold on tight to your precious metal which may turn out to be gold eventually.
God bless.
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