Second Chances

Victoria was the first in her family to contract the dreaded Ebola virus. She was pregnant, in her first trimester when the ills started. She lost the pregnancy. Then her father took ill, her brothers followed, her mother and even her grandmother.

She was placed in a death hole called a hospital where she saw death and the grave in all its stages. The health officials never came close without masks and full protective covering. That was in 2014.

A few meters from that same room where she wrestled death and won just a year ago, Victoria just delivered a baby boy. Her husband stands there beaming and rejoicing, holding his beloved son. Victoria cannot control the tears that stream freely down her face.

"My whole family is dead. My mother, my grandmother, my father, my brothers, I am alone with no one to help me, but I am grateful for this opportunity to start a family again."

Yes, the pains they come. Sometimes they linger for so long, other times everything goes wrong. The economy so bad that your resources seem to evaporate? Academic session coming with no hope for funds to pay fees? The biological clock ticking? Friends let you down? Lost a loved one? Failed one of life's examinations? Suffering from a sickness or disease? Living with the aftermath of wrong and unguided choices?

The fact that you can breathe in and breathe out, the fact that you have the presence of mind to ponder on these is a reason to be grateful. Life is an opportunity for change. Every second we live is a gift that is valueless, quite like a blank cheque.

My mother would say, 'if you don't like where you are, get up and change location. You are not a tree, you are not stuck to the ground.' You might ask, what if I cannot get up for change right now? I would say, 'remember Victoria!' She lived in the valley of the shadow of death, lost everything and everyone she loved but she survived. Today even though the shadows hang overhead, she has a reason to be grateful, to celebrate, to re-chart purpose.

You only live once, love the body you live in, dance in the rain, sing with the wind, smell the roses. Today and everyday we wake up and feel the breath in our nostrils and feel our fingers move is what it is, a second chance.

Ojonugwa Sapphire Abu 

Photo credits: Dailymail.com
tags, Ebola survivor gives birth to healthy baby boy