7th January, 2011
From cradle to grave, we all desire to love and be loved. To be sincere, love is necessary for survival for without it, life turns very miserable and boring, while our physical and even mental vitality lessens, resistance lowers and incredible emotional disproportion may occur.
There was a time I heard of a friendâ€
One fateful day, she decided to talk things over and surprisingly, she opened up: “To be sincere with you Ma, I see nothing good about life any longer. Sam met me as office assistant in an insurance company where I worked for 15 years. He came in as a youth cops member to serve for the mandatory one-year post-graduation requirement. Samâ€
“Before long, Sam got attracted to my warmth and we both became fond of each other, while guards were laid off and a relationship was started. Things went on pretty well. Although gossip of office romance initially upset me, I took consolation in the fact that I had found true love. After Samâ€
“He could not secure a job soon, so I encouraged him to get back to school and take up a Masterâ€
“In a bid to appreciate my sacrifice, Sam offered to put me through distant learning education so I could, at least, see the walls of the university. He picked the form for me and I secured admission on one attempt. We were both very busy, while weekends were the only time left for mutual fellowship.
It actually became so exciting that we both looked forward to it. During one of my visits to Sam, I met his mother, who he said, had left his father since they were young and married another man. Immediately Sam introduced me as his wife-to-be, she turned her face to the wall and murmured some things in their local language that made Sam react in some defensive manner.
“I did not want to further aggravate his anger by asking him to go over what mama said to him as it was glaring all was not well. I certainly had to shorten my stay just to avoid the frigid atmosphere mama brought. After two days, I had a seemingly pleasant surprise as mama sent for me to come and take her to where I stayed. I jumped at the offer and prepared my house in an exceptional manner to suit the occasion.
“She sounded and acted so nice that I could not believe she was the same person I first encountered. Naturally, I attributed this new development to Sam, who I knew could go to any length to make me happy. But unfortunately, Sam had no hand in it—mama has always been known to be mischievous and full of clever strategies.
“Not long after she left my house, she reappeared with two guys, who she claimed were Samâ€
“Once I entered the car, a canned drink was served and I opened mine without caution or suspicion and gulped the whole content. The next thing was that I found I was in a strange house which had no semblance with Samâ€
“Before I could recover from the shock and thought of going back to Jos where I stayed and met Sam to look for him, it was already too late as she lied to him that I would have been kidnapped by evil doers and when he got no trace of the truth, he decided to leave for an unknown destination.
“Right from that day, life was bad for me and I had to beg people for help, while I got back to the rented apartment in Lagos since that was where I now had all my belongings.â€
As she ended her story, her madam smiled and asked if she saw Sam she would still recognise him. She said yes and she sent the gateman to call the man in the next house and this was no other person than Sam, who she has been counseling for a long time after he told her the story of how he lost his dear lover. He refused to get married to another woman but once he saw Faith, life retuned and they are now happily married.