Life was always rosy at the beginning, everything was so okay and beautiful. Dad loved me and my siblings as a man should love his family
I remember me and my siblings being driven to school by a personal driver . Weekends were always spent either at fantasy land Ikoyi, Silver-bird gallery or any nice eatery.

Life was indeed sweet, we lived in our personal house. Dad had a very good business, mom was a stay at home wife, though she was a graduate. Life was beautiful I remember every Christmas we always traveled to the village to celebrate the festive season with those at home.
But I will never forget the disdainful look, my mother and sisters always got from my father's mother and some of his siblings. The only people who always seemed happy seeing us was my grand father of blessed memory and their last born, well I never counted anything to their disdainful look. I just assumed them as people who found it difficult to be happy.

The truth behind the disdainful look of theirs finally came to light, when an ugly incidence which changed my life forever happened.
It was a sunny afternoon in 2010 I was 16 years old then, I had just finish my final examinations awaiting my admission to the university. I came back home that afternoon from where I was learning computer, to meet my mom crying profusely with her elder sister trying to console her. I was curious to know what happened, but my mom's elder sister told me a lie that my mom was having a serious back-ache that was why she was crying that way.
But I refuse to buy any of that because I was smarter than that, well I finally got to hear the news that my father died in ghastly accident, the cars and bodies involved in the accident were burnt beyond recognition. When I heard the news it broke me, I didn't know if I should just be sad, or cry my eyes out. I couldn't eat for the rest of the day, while my mom kept being mourning, though my sisters were to young to know what was happening. It was only immediate younger sister who understood what happened, I'm the first born.
The following week rumors had spread like wildfire, people began trooping in and out of the house, to come console us. Different people I haven't seen in my entire life came to console us.

Trouble started when my grandmother and her lazy children came to our house, me being so happy to see them rushed out to greet them only to be pushed aside. The only person who embraced me was their last-born (He is not like those other lazy bastards), only for my grandmother to enter the house to start shouting, saying "Where is that useless woman who can not give her husband a son".
My mum even tired to pacify by greeting her, but this old woman was not having any of it, she started raining curses and abuses on my mother with those my other useless uncle and aunties. She didn't stop until her last born intervened and shut her up, while I walked my mum into her room back, my young uncle came back to apologize to my mum for his mom useless behavior.

Well mama did not stay long, she left the next morning warning us to leave her son's house or the next time she comes it won't be funny for us, after she had left I then asked my mom why that old woman was so aggressive towards us the previous day. She then explained to me how my grandmother never approved of her marriage to my father, to make matters worse my mother only gave birth to girls (4 girls), hence their disdainful look and horrible treatment meted out towards us.
Well we where already running short of cash already, because mom wasn't working as I mentioned earlier so she had to sell her car to get some change in hand, we were managing the saloon car that took me and my siblings to school, when I was still in school. Though we still had three other cars in the compound but they belonged to my dad.

Three months exactly my grandmother came back has promised, we where forcefully evicted out of the house the only tangible thing we took out of the house aside our clothes was that saloon car which we were using as at that time. I remember asking my mum later on why she did not fight, she told me it was pointless as she did not do court wedding so legally she wasn't my fathers wife.
Back to the story, we rented a comfortable size self con. It had a sitting room, single bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and toilet. Our new compound had borehole, the compound was comfortable to an extent. My sisters changed school, I got admission into the university of Ibadan. I had a cousin there already but she was in her final year though, things began to normalize life started becoming sweet again. My mom sold the saloon car to start a cold room business and she also sold soft drinks along with the cold room business, within two years mom had bought a land, she started building small small on it. Yea she did told me she got a land, everything was going fine.

The fourth year after my dad's death I was already 20 years old, mom's business was doing well. She had almost completed the house, honestly she's a strong woman, because I wondered how she was able to build a house within just 4 years. The only thing that remained was just gate, borehole and painting of the house exteriors. Yea no lies believe me when I tell you she already tiled the interior of the house and even painted it, it was just the exterior that needed little finishing touches. Though the house was a two bedroom flat, I give her credit for her hard work. We were all eager to move to our new house, December 10th 2014 we moved to our new house. My sisters were the happiest of all, within two months my mom was able to install borehole in the compound .I wonder how much she made from her business though.

Trouble started when I got a call from home that my mum was terrible sick, I rushed home to my uttermost disappointment. The condition I saw my mum was more than sickness, she was afflicted with something I could not describe. Yoruba people call it Ofa aye, she had terrible rashes all over her body, her legs were swollen. I saw my mother I could not recognize her, tears welled up in my eyes. I asked her what happened she told me that she had a confrontation with the bricklayer that built the house, while I was in school. The man claimed my mom underpaid and still owed him money from construction of the house, the matter was settled and it was discovered that the bricklayer was telling a lie, he just wanted to extort my mum. He was not pacified by the settlement, he visited my mum in her workplace and told her she would see. Three weeks later she was afflicted.

Not only did she get sick, her business also crumbled customers stop coming like before, we were exhorted by different con men posing as traditional healers. Most of the goods we gave them out, while we also consumed some. We were no longer recording sales like before, things slowed down rapidly.
We had to pack out of the shop because we could not pay rent, it was during my mom's sickness I discovered she was in a cooperative society. She borrowed from them to run her business and also build the house, her remaining debt to them was up to 3 million naira .
So pressure from cooperative society came, my sick mother everything. Life was really tiring we had to sell all our cold room equipment and we were able to raise at least up to 1.2 million naira to pay them off, though my mom's health was still deteriorating. It wasn't easy I stayed at home at least for 8 months I had carry overs, my saving grace was I started with a good CGPA . We had spent all my moms savings, because we were spending and no stream of income.

The 9th month still at home which was November, after spending all that we had and doing everything possible for my mum to get better. We lost her to the cold hand of death on the 12th of November 2015, it was so devastating. It was though my life had crumbled, I cried so hard I couldn't be consoled my sisters also did the same. But I had to be strong for my sisters, though family and friends contributed up to 700,000 naira for us, well we transported my mother's body to her village. Though she had told me earlier that she wants to be buried in her hometown if she died, I remember reprimanding her for talking that way. We transferred her body to her home town for burial. I remember her mother also crying profusely with us , we buried her and got back to city.

My mother's death was a very ugly experience, I never wish it for anyone. After my mother's burial our last born fell seriously sick, our mothers death affected her, she will cry everyday till she was weak to no longer cry. I remember begging and pleading with her to eat, I was afraid to lose my sister as well. I called my mothers elder sister to inform her what was happening so she offered that my sister stayed with her for a while. Well that actually worked because she got better there.
The only good thing my mothers death brought was the cooperative society offered to forgive our debt up to 1 million naira, though by now I had already dropped out from school. Things were tough tho, I had to pay school fees for my younger ones, feeding honestly. I had never taught I will inherit such responsibility at a young age. Though we got money gifts from people, but a greater part of the money was used to settle debt incurred when our mother got sick, we had settled all our debt and bills aside the cooperative money, I still had little change of 80k left.

We didn't celebrate Christmas this year. I was 21 years now, it was already our second year in our new house. It was a pity my mum didn't live to see it. New year came quickly I went job hunting, I still had a savings of 60k from the 80k remaining. Luckily for me after days of hunting, I was finally able to secure a sales girl job at a mini-mart. The pay was 10,000 per month , it wasn't enough but I made sure I tried to make my sisters as comfortable as I could, luckily for us in February my youngest uncle ( last born from my Dad's side ) surprised us that year. He bought a bag of rice, 5 litters of both palm oil and groundnut oil, beans, garri and other provisions to stock up the house, he also gave me 50,000 while going after dropping those things for us. I was so happy honestly because it was a big relive, so the money I earned was kept towards saving for emergencies.

By august my immediate younger sister was already through with secondary school, I was able to shell out some money from my savings for her WASSCE Exam. Though well wishers also gave out money, I told her to learn a trade for the time being while I try to gather money for her to go to the university. I still had to cater for my other sister's . Sometimes remembering this things I do shed tears .

Being forced into responsibility at an early age is tiring , I did a lot of things to survive. Typing.....

Okay I'm back

So as I was saying, I told my younger sister to learn a trade while I hustled to get enough money for her to go to school. I enrolled her into a nearby hairdressing shop . That period in time that was the hot cake then for girls just leaving secondary school , well this was around 2016. Well I was able to change job I got an higher paying offer job, my job was sales attendant at bar the pay was 30k per month. I worked late till night most times. I left the care of my two younger siblings into the hands of my immediate younger sister, too much responsibilities at that early age made them serious with life , though I hardly check my siblings assignment as I was always busy with work. But I made it a duty to at least engage them in little talks to know what is happening in school, while I was not around, what they did and just engaging them generally.

December finally came, the festive period was lit. I had already saved up enough, though I still got a monthly stipend of 20,000 from my dads brother. I took my sister's out for the festive season, to take ice cream and do little shopping. I spent up to 15,000 taking them out, seeing my siblings happy also made me happy. For a moment I was proud of myself.
The new year finally came, 2017 was finally here, having over 100,000 in savings. I was able to upset some necessary bills, paid school fees did other things I still had pretty up to 40k. I continued my routinely saving, we still had some foodstuffs. Sp, we were good to go.

My sister was enrolled for JAMB I paid for the form, I also ensured she attended the jamb tutorial. My work was sweet as I also got tips from those drinking at the bar asides from my salary , most times I could get up to 5k as tip from different customers. I mostly kept this money, if you knew they way I saved money you would laugh . I always saved as though I will die if I didn't save anything at all.
Jamb results came out my sister got 230 well it wasn't a bad score considering the course she wanted to study, luckily for us she also passed post UTME. Honestly I was even more happier than she was, because her passing post UTME once meant me not spending money twice
She got admitted to lautech, it was a relive and thing of joy seeing my sister going to school, following her too school I was just reminiscing about my life, all that has happened and I was just thanking God everything. Truth is if we were paying house rent I do not if we would ever survive it.

She got a decent apartment (a single room though) outside campus, my uncle paid completely her house rent for a year. Well that reduced the burden from my neck a little bit, my mother siblings also supported us with 60k in total. So I made sure she bought necessary things like foodstuffs, mattress, carpet and other toiletries, she needed. I gave her 10k as pocket money , some of her housemate thought I was her mother Lol.

still typing

It will all end well...

dawnomike:
It will all end well...

obviously it did, just sharing my story as a motivation

Wow following

Following...

AmazonianLady:
still typing i'm coming

We are seated waiting for you...

More please...

crackhaus:
More please...

Banana

ahnie:

Banana

Mamacita

crackhaus:

Mamacita

You don come back?

Wow, this thing called life...

ahnie:

You don come back?

Yes o... Returned on Monday.

crackhaus:

Yes o... Returned on Monday.

Yet you locked up.
Where's my peppered barbeque fish and malt?

Banana hala later,let's not derail this beautiful thread.Banana,don't forget.

ahnie:

Yet you locked up.
Where's my peppered barbeque fish and malt?

Abeg nor vex...

Come dey with me, you go eat enough barbecue fish till you quench.

ahnie:
Banana hala later,let's not derail this beautiful thread.Banana,don't forget.

I hear

ahnie:
Banana hala later,let's not derail this beautiful thread.Banana,don't forget.

Hehehehehehehehehe
It's the Banana! Banana! for me.
No wonder you think fried bananas is yulky. So, you were imagining crack fried.

crackhaus:

Abeg nor vex...

Come dey with me, you go eat enough barbecue fish till you quench.

So where I go keep Papa zino?
J pls keep ya barbeque grill abeg.

mariahAngel:


Hehehehehehehehehe
It's the Banana! Banana! for me.
No wonder you think fried bananas is yulky. So, you were imagining crack fried.

Maria I go spank you.chai you ve such a very dirty mind .

crackhaus:

I hear

Ok,Banana'm!

ahnie:

So where I go keep Papa zino?
J pls keep ya barbeque grill abeg.

You must come chop o, must...

Mehnnnnn, abeg come finish this tory

.

This gave me a teary eyes.
Life is not balance at all.

crackhaus:



You must come chop o, must...

Banana, thanks I no want.hoooor see me see trouble.
Your wahala don past ibadan John wicks own o

Make I perch here fess.

I don't like reading emotional scripts as this, now I'm crying alone by this time of the night. By that 2010 you finished secondary school, I de NYSC dat time. You don make me see how u suffered.

But make I ask u, what's ur tribe

I don't know who started the nonsense that without a male child; a man has lost it all.

Stories like this break my heart.

Again, the issue of next of kin comes up. I believe if the man had done the needful, your paternal grandma and the rest wouldn't have seen the ground to claim all your dad did acquire.

Following this story with my keen interest….

beautyhd:
I don't know who started the nonsense that without a male child; a man has lost it all.

Stories like this break my heart.

Instead of blaming the man whose at fault for not producing a male child,they will blame the innocent woman.

@AmazonianLady:

I pray that God would give you a husband that would be your resting place.

Not financial rest per se but emotional rest: one who would cherish you, pamper you, love you, not stress you nor serve you breakfast.

I also pray He will give you the discernment to know and cherish that man when he comes.

I also pray same for your sisters.

I am interested in finishing the story.