FAMILY IS WEALTH

It was an ordinary year , so it seems on January first. Nothing extraordinary to prove what was lurcking at our family door. Then, came May, the senior secondary west Africa examination was just over. Then , I got a call from my immediate junior sister, our last born. It was a call I still recall in pain. " Egin ido, come o, it is urgent"  I discovered her first born ,Chichi, has been sick and in general hospital. She was sixteen years. She had tooth ache , and two of it was removed .The third was to be removed when the pain persisted so my junior sister suggested a test to know the cause. The result, in few weeks, was shattering, heartbreaking !

The result took us on a journey I can never forget in my life. She had cancer of the mouth ! For six month in Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). We were treated so poorly in oncology dept. The medical doctors consistently drum it into my niece ears , our ears that there was no hope. That alone was killing. They were so cold that sometimes, I wondered if they have blood in their veins. The treatment was also very slow. Most nights, we have to sleep outside in the cold since we were not permitted to sleep inside the ward. Financially, we were down. Chemotherapy treatment is expensive but we had no choice. 

In the midst of this trials, family stood by us. Our other siblings stood by us. Financially, emotionally and physically. We became a model for other patients in the ward. Sometimes I was asked if my niece is my daughter or my junior sister's daughter.

We were eventually advised to take her to Indian. We did. That was another harrowing experience. We became their money bag. We were milked dry. Family members ,stood by us. At a point, when there was nobody to intervene for us, my senior sister, a nurse, in America, travelled to Indian and that changed the story. While coming, she brought African foods , that means a lot to my junior sister. She threatened legal action against the hospital and knowing fully well she is the medical line, they quickly carried out her operation and discharged her within a short time. My sister coming was divine and timely, we would have lost my niece in India.

The Lord gave us another six months to enjoy her. Family stood by us. Five years ago, in June, when she was called home to be with the Lord, in Luth, family stood with us. I don't know how my siblings, brother Yele,  my niece, Jummy managed within a short time to get to the hospital to arrange her burial, but they gave us unbendable shoulder to lean on.

It's five years gone, the pain is still so so fresh but I have learnt that family is everything. It is well that never dries and wealth that is durable !