Dear MIMSters: See How I Repaid My Mother After Choosing Me Above All

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My mother chose me above all and this story is about how I repaid her.

I grew up seeing my mother talked down on by her family members and I would wonder why she was treated differently from her other siblings. Her mom, my grandmother would call her unprintable names while I witnessed her dad hit her a few times even when I was watching. As young as I was at 5-years old, I could tell they were not being fair to her but there was nothing I could do.

I also noticed that they would call me names different from what my mom called me while growing up. My mom would call me “Oluwadurotimi” literally “God is with me” while they would call me, “Oluwawolodurotie?” literally, “Which God with you?”

I was a sad child because my mom was always sad. She would hold me and tell me she knows I would be great. In school, my friends would talk about their daddies but I didn’t have a dad. As little as I was then, I felt if I asked my mom to probably buy a daddy for me like my friends at school, I would be making her sadder since I knew she was always sad.

It went on that way until I got into secondary school. I got home that day and after witnessing my grandmother talk harshly to my mom again, and because I had grown to know how a dad comes into the equation, I summoned courage and asked my mom about my daddy.

Long and short, I am a product of rape. Hmm! How I cried the day I knew even my mother did not know who my father was.

Let me tell you the story as she told me.

She was 14-years old in Form 3 when she sneaked out of school with some of her classmates to attend a party. It was at the party that she and her friends were drugged and gang raped. They were boarding students and because they were not authorized to go out of the school premises, they had to keep the crime committed against them to themselves.

Three months later, my mother said her life came crumbling! She said they were in Mathematics class when she started to throw up. She was taken to the sick bay for treatment. She was already 3-moths gone!

The school sent for her parents and questions were asked because it was an all female boarding school so they needed to know who was responsible.

My mother was from a strict christian home, and her school was church owned. After the rape, she went home for the mid term break but nothing happened that could have made anyone suspect she could be pregnant. She said by the time she narrated what happened and her friends were called to testify, they all denied ever going to a party with her. They were all tested and none of them was pregnant except my mother. She said every efforts the school made to get the other girls to confirm her story met with brick walls.

Eventually she was expelled from school and had to go home with her parents. That was the end of her education. Not even her parents believed her. She said it was an extremely difficult season of her life because no one wanted to be seen with her.

The church sanctioned her parents and took some key positions they held in the church off them. They asked her to abort the baby (me) but she wouldn’t. Her refusal got her more condemnation than she was prepared for. Her siblings were mandated by their parents to stay away from her as the black sheep of the family and they did. Mothers also asked their daughters to stay away from ‘the wayward’ girl. She was about giving up when she had a dream one night and saw a man tell her she was carrying a great seed. She said the man told her to ensure she kept the seed safe because of her future.

The 9-months journey was hard for her but what was harder was the day she went into labour…

(Continues in Part 2)