Resist the urge to insert “IVF” into the conversation when people celebrate birthing twins or triplets.
Say congratulations and keep it moving or just shut up.
She was funny, entertaining, witty, smart, crazy, emotional, flawed, unserious, silly, courageous, and even annoying… the full package. I can’t believe the “pity” and “poor” narrative was imposed on her when she didn’t want it and was so much more. Wishing her the very best.
I doubt people understand how families of mad/crazy people feel. I doubt that they know that they may have families at all, but I understand, being a family member to one.
I promise you that if you are not calm, collected, thoughtful, thick-skinned, resolute and a tough person, it will break you. Especially in Nigeria.
I remember what I call my Ice Breaker or my "Introduction" into toughness and being blind to shame. It was when my mum's mental health issue began, she ran away from home and we were looking for her. Someone called my grandma to tell her she was seen at Challenge Bus Stop in Ìbàdàn.
Challenge Bus Stop used to be a Bus Stop that had a popular market by it. The road was bad, dirty, tiny, busy and dangerous for pedestrians until this new government came in. Only those who have been in this state for at least two decades would get the picture.
I got to the Bus Stop, roamed everywhere till I found her. She was so dirty, wet and smelly. She was reluctant, violent, she fought me, called me a kidnapper and was all noisy. She fought me off so hard, I was so sad because I couldn't believe my mum could ever become like that, but I didn't let go of my grip, because she was prepared to run off and we had been in search of her for days. I was 17. It was closing hours. You can imagine the crowd. Commuters were rushing to enter the taxis. I was not only fighting to get a taxi for myself, but my mum, while trying to out-do other people rushing to enter into those taxis at the same time and ensuring she didn't run away.
It was either "I no fit carry mad person o" or they call an outrageous amount that could take you to another state, or the occupants of the taxi refuse to go with the taxi after experiencing some drama. You, are, in one word, a bad business.
Other things you experience is isolation, betrayal and being gossiped. Isolation isn't an issue for me because I am naturally selective of my company, but one betrayal is an event that shook the hell out of me, after which I would tell you my experience with being gossiped, which is the funny one.
What makes my mum's story very sad is that an anonymous person took advantage of my mum's mental health and impregnated her. She named a couple of persons when asked who the father was. My family eagerly spring to wanting to approach the persons. I stop them from doing so because I prefer to be strategic. I am not interested in finding a father for my sister, but punishing the said person from the 102 ways I curated as consequences for the wrong, when it is time. I know they'd deny and I can't work with a "claim". So I am going to wait till I have the time and resources to hold on to substantial evidence.
My mom's story was inconsistent, but I had a friend who was twice my age that year, whose story was consistent about the supposed father of my sister, even more than my mother's. This friend claimed that he was sure about whom the father of my sister was on two basis, because she(my sister) looks like him and because he saw them(my mum and the man) together a lot, in the man's car, his house and several places before the birth of my sister. He talked to my family about it because he knew my approach to the issue was different, and not with mere confrontation.
He charged them up and they approached him, only for him to arrest my mum and intimidate them. All these(pregnancy and back and forth) happened while I was away for close to two years in Ekiti. So, one evening in Ìbàdàn, after my sister has been birthed, I sat down with this friend who was say, 36 years, while I was 18, at a public place. Not long after we got there, the man my supposed friend accused of being the father of my sister approached me.
You guys have seriously misinterpreted Imisi's strategy!!!, it is not pity or poverty, it is obviously HUMOUR and COMEDY! And we're loving it!!! #bbnaija