Tuesday 26 February 2008

The Woman And Her Baby

Some few years back on my way on holiday I checked in at the airport only to realise I had forgotten something at my friend’s apartment in Marwa Gardens
After checking in I decided to ask the driver to take me there and pick up my forgotten item.
On the way just after descending the local airport bridge we made a left after just beside the General Hospital and headed towards Ikeja Bustop then they was traffic and
I saw an image that will never leave my memory and might haunt me to my grave.
They sat this woman with a few days old baby (baby was too small to have been up to 2weeks old) This is not an uncommon sight in Nigeria but what I saw afterwards as so made me look at life in a very different way.
The woman had one of her breast out of her cloth and it was soaking with blood and had (I can’t say now) But it was the most disturbing picture I have ever seen in my life.
I wept inside me and just as I was about to tell the driver to stop the traffic subsided and the car edged forward.
I was determined to stop on my way back not to give her money but to take her to the hospital and pay for them to look after her and the baby she was holding. On our way back because of the heavy traffic the driver took a different way and I missed the opportunity to ever render help to her.
When I got to my holiday destination I called my mum who I know is a philanthropist and very compassionate just like myself to go and look for the woman and take her to the hospital.
My mum got there but she was no where to be found. She must have moved base.
The most annoying thing about the whole episode is the fact that she was sitting not more than 2mins walk to the general hospital, in a strategic location in a wealthy area
And not one person stopped in their big cars, or came down from their big mansions in GRA Ikeja Or even a Doctor, nurse, medical Director who has no option but to pass through this woman in very obvious pain, discomfort and very glaring need of medical attention.
I pray daily to God to make me an instrument of his piece to I can touch people’s life one way or the other. I can’t stop to think of this woman and her child every now and again. Questions like what happened to her, was she rescued, is she still alive, is her baby living or dead? All this questions and so many more have been left unanswered
And will be till the end of time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

my love ure my friend but there are somethings that u dont let wait,u should have helped the woman when u had the oppourtunity and not wait for later,see,u never got the oppourtunity again and now it haughts u.anyway its past let just hope the she found someone else,and thats our country for u every man for himself,the rich getting richer and the poor dieing of hunger and starvation God save o.......

Victoria Temitope Osho said...

Joke you darm right. I missed an opportunity of a life time. It is a case of once bitten twice shy.
I just hope and pray she and her baby got the best medical attention they both deserved.
And you are right its the rich versus the poor in Nigeria. God help us all. Amen