POVERTY; MARRIAGE DOWRY, CULTURE - BODY EXHUMED

In life I wonder why majority of good people suffer most.

As a Volunteer in Community Social Work, In my day to day service to my Community, I happened to meet this young beautiful, charming, kind and loving lady. She had a small green grocer where she got basic needs for her four children. Her jobless, husband wakes early to look for casual jobs. carrying building materials in construction sites. In several occasions he goes back home unsuccessful..

We became great friends and her customer, she called me her mum and she had so many customers. Majority of her friends knew I was her mum Her mum lived several Kilometers back home in their ancestral land.

She got married at a very early stage Primary level, due to poverty lack of school fees. Her first born daughter u would mistake her as her younger sister. Imagine she has four children. Feeding, educating, clothing, and Rent I mean basic needs four children it is not a joke

To make the matters worse two of her children, the second and Fourth born are physically disabled. I empathise with her situation so much I had promised her, I will introduce her to a Government Children Officer to help her cater for her two disabled children needs. When I went with the forms to her room)house, I found the last born disabled girl 2yrs outside their room she got hold of my hand small finger and directed me to where her mum was washing their clothes. All the children had not gone to school due to lack of school Fees. My friend smiled, she was so happy. she told me do you see she has now improved. A month before there was a polio Campaign, as a Community Health Worker (CHW) she got her polio vaccination. Since birth the child her health seems to deteriorate day by day. The mother was happy at least child's health had improved.

I informed the mother, I explained her situation to the children's Officer, so she agreed to fill the form for her children/s assistance.I asked for her Identity Card and the names of the children. I filled in the form and I left to return the forms to the Children Officer.

After a few days, I went to visit her but the neighbours informed me that she shifted because she was unable to pay house rent.

Her customer and our friend called me on phone after three days, She asked me, 'were you informed our friend got sick while in her house the daughter called the neighbours. They called the husband who had gone in search of a casual job to inform her the condition of the wife. The husband requested the neighbours to take the wife to a referral hospital, The neighbours are also poor, they did not have monery to hire a Taxi. so they boarded a public vehicle. A Public Vehicle it stops at every other stage to drop passengers.

She was being carried by the friends from the stage and she was requesting them to give her some water to drink. They arrived at the hospital, where she was laid down, there was another woman lying next to her on a drip. While the Doctors were trying to give her medication she was pronounced dead.

The neighbours could not believe their ears. They stood there staring at one another.The husband arrived hurriedly confused, he found the neighbors at first glance, the husband thought the woman who had a drip on. was the wife but he noticed she was not the one after scrutinizing her. the two neighbors were watching him closely

. When he looked at the body lying next to the woman on drip, the husband could not believe his eyes when he found no doubt, the corpse was that one of loving wife.

He screamed and ran about, around there, when the two neighbors tried to get hold of him to console , comfort they could not, so they called a friend of him on phone. He came got hold of him, he could not go alone in a public vehicle so he accompanied him to their home,

The family in/laws were informed they could not believe. They came immediately and demanded for Post Mortem. They planned and agreed on a burial date.The In Laws, wifes side claimed the husband had not completed paying dowry. The husband family got the dowry money before burial date, according to their culture/ custom. The in laws wife's family, refused to take the marriage dowry, according to the husband. The husbands family prepared burial date and had informed their in-laws, they did not turn up for the burial. so they continued with the burial.

.A day after the burial, the in/laws wifes family stormed in the in-laws husbands home gave the husband with a Court Order summon they were accompanied by an Government Officer. They claimed they were given permission to exhume the body and take it to the Mortuary. It was hectic, the TV media was there and police. The body was exhumed and taken to the Mortuary.

The husband called me on phone, he told me everything as I have narrated the whole incidence to me, as I have written above. It was so shocking, unfortunate.

The body was in the Mortuary for four months from January to end of April this year. The body was later buried at the wife's parents land. That is how an innocent soul suffered even after death. so my mind keep on wondering "Why do good people suffer' It haunts me even today, when I see/visit her children.

May GOD rest her soul in Eternal Peace and may perpetual light shine upon her soul. Amen.