Do you flee or fight when facing family hardships?

  

Date Posted: 2/13/2017 5:08:23 AM

Posted By: WHITE SEA  Membership Level: Silver  Total Points: 737

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This is a story of a woman suffering emotional pain and dire poverty but whose strength of will enables her to hope again.
Not the bore. Boredom could never be the burden. It was the unbearable heaviness of her heart. For many moons Esther lived in a world of great darkness.

"You cannot know the pain," she said easing herself to stop crying. Esther's uneasiness registered a milling misery that dwelt deep down. She didn't know happiness. Solace rode far out of reach in Kimagata- a village founded on pot-brew. Each day came to torment her. Esther's troubles doubled in the demanding drunkard of a husband that wrecked her once beautiful home.

Her house stood precariously on a small ant-hill. Most of its grass-thatched roof had worn off and an observer could guess the gross rain trouble. The chill of the nights must be aweful. "A home is the feel of comfort not a shelter," she reiterated with wet eyes peeking into a world only she understood.
She needed not to hyperbolize her statement of her situation. Esther, a figure of poverty, found it hard to fend for her three children due to disability. A childhood accident crippled her. On that account, her pain compounded to see her bony children sleep hungry. On the other hand, the local brew (chang'aa) blinded her husband who was supposed to be the backbone of the family. Starvation hung on her shoulders. It ate into her bones. Thus was the weakness of her body and spirit.

The world became too little for her. It offered less hope, only suffocating congestion. She had no slim chance to sidestep the overwhelming pressures. David, her husband was too harsh. The drinks did nothing to lull him. Guests never paid visit. Any secret gifts for the wife found their way to the brewer.

All these made her look older than her age.

With the death of her parents came the lethal dose of denial. The feel of her emptiness took her into unfathomable bit of distress. "I have nothing. My brothers kicked me out," she said with gripping sadness. She felt thrashed, beaten, battered and locked away in the cold lone existence.
Of course she had company. Expectant children- they were a constant source of dire guilt. They needed parental providence and protection. There was a husband only content with his adamant and self-serving sole drive to quench thirsts of drink and carnal desires. The kids were too young to help their mother. But they were not too young to live in fear of their own father. More often than not they stayed awake in bed just in case of a fire. They wanted out too. According to them an exit would salvage the situation.

Threats loomed around Esther. There was the possibility of giving in. It was so tempting that she mulled over it every single day. "Sometimes something snaps inside and i can't help it," she said, "I cry for myself and for my children." However, she ruled out the idea of ever leaving and calling it quits. "I have to be strong for my children. Plus where could i go?" she asked rhetorically. She explained that moving out would mean taking the children along. She thought nobody though generous would accept to clothe and feed four extra mouths. Besides, she didn't want her children to suffer any discrimination and ill-treatment in the hands of other ruthless people.

She knew of a neighbor's child who due to afflictions almost succumbed to the afterlife. The child served in a relative's home. He was underage but was subjected to conditions where he had to exert effort so as to support his family. Esther wondered loudly how some parents were complacently foolish and naive. "I brought them (children) to this world. So they are my responsibility," she said.

Despite the ugliness of her situation, Esther has vowed to initiate positive changes however slight or slow. Her tomorrow seems vague. It promises no concrete grants. But her expectations stand intact and her faith unwavering. She prays and waits. "I look up and i know that in the vastness of the skies there is someone who can bring wholeness," she said blankly searching the heavens. She explained that she would ask God of the universe to have mercy on her and her family. "I can live through this day and give a testimony tomorrow; of a restored wholeness over my riddled life," she added with confidence of conviction.

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