GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU. (PART 1)

A story from when I was 6 years old.

In 2002, my three sisters and I lived alone with our mother (a single parent) in a flat. She had her cousin come and assist her in taking care of us. Her cousin would babysit my little sister who was 10 months old at the time, when we went to school and my mum to work. Or so we thought.

My little sister during this time would fall sick with typhoid fever and it was very recurrent. She was in and out of the hospital for this specific issue and my mum would be wondering what could have been happening for this issue to recurring.

I remember that one day my mum came to get me and my two older siblings from school early and so we happened to get home earlier than we usually would and earlier than my mum’s cousin had anticipated. We got to there and could hear my little sister crying so loud. My mum kept calling her cousin's name aloud at the door but there was no response, and we could hear my little sister screaming at the door. I saw my mum panic with so much fear in her eyes wondering what could have been happening. We tried to open the door, but it was locked. My little sister was locked in.

While we were at the door panicking, we saw my mum’s cousin coming up the stairs to our flat not knowing we would be back early. She was visibly shocked and scared to see us at the door. She was wearing very skimpy clothes and a basket with my mum’s pans in the basket. My mum asked her where she went. She was mute and wouldn’t speak. It was a very violent slap my mum landed on her face that day and demanded the keys to get in. By the time we entered our flat, my little sister was unconscious. Her iris was not visible, and we could only see the white part of her eyes. My mother was screaming and in her clothes from the office she carried my sister down the stairs, into her car and dashed to the hospital.

According to my mum, the doctors at the hospital were furious because she was bringing in an almost dead child. She explained to them that she was a single mother who had left her infant child in the care of a family member, and this is what she came to meet. They admitted my sister and apparently found it so hard to find a vein on her hands to give her fluids, they passed it through her legs.

This is where the real story begins.

Unbeknownst to us, my mum’s cousin was deeply rooted in promiscuity and was known to have had some ‘boyfriends’ around in just a few months to a year of moving in with us. She would go out every day after we had left with my mum for school and lock my little sister in, at the time a ten-month-old baby. My little sister would cry in hunger and eat her waste in the process, reason why she had a recurring typhoid fever.

She would also apparently sometimes knock my little sister out by overdosing her on some medications that were prescribed by a paediatrician for my little sister to calm her down anytime she got frantic. This medication would frequently get finished in no time and my mum would wonder why, not knowing she was overdosing my little sister on the drug. My little sister could apparently be knocked out for hours, from the time my mum’s cousin would leave the house in the morning after we had left till about late afternoon when she would wake up drugged and hungry, crying loudly and eat her waste.

We got this report from our flatmate, who said he would hear a baby crying so bad in the afternoon it would irk his skin and he decided to investigate. He said apparently, there were days where she wouldn’t lock the door and he would be able to go pick my baby sister up, visibly notice she was drowsy, hungry, soiled in her waste and even eaten some. He said he would pick her up, bathe her and change her diapers.

He said there was a day my mum’s cousin came in frantic noticing my little sister had been taken and he told her she was with him. So, from that time, he would wait at the door for my mum’s cousin to hand my little sister over in the morning before going out to town. He was the one actually taking care of my sister. Anytime she saw him when she was with us, she would reach out to go to him and rest her head on his shoulders. We didn’t understand why this was so, not knowing, to her, he was her saviour. I remember my mother’s deep weeping. She couldn’t believe what she had heard. I would see her over the phone speaking and crying.

Fast forward we had to deal with the effects of this trauma my little sister had endured. At 5 my little sister was expressing herself like a two-year-old baby. She was so slow, timid, and very quiet. She was finding it hard to keep up in school and was regularly beaten by irresponsible teachers in Morning Star School who did not have patience to guide and help her.

My mum took my sister out of the school to a school started by a christian missionary couple. They were very patient with my sister and helped her become more confident. My sister began to shine and would participate in national Abacus competitions because she loved mathematics. My sister could now read and write and was known to be one of the most brilliant students in her class at the time.

Fast forward today my little sister has a degree in actuarial science and working in treasury.

GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU!

IT IS FOR REASONS AND PERSONAL STORIES LIKE THIS THAT I SAY EVEN WHEN I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, I WILL FEAR NO EVIL!

The devil thought he had destroyed my little sister. That incident was meant to break her forever, but God said not on His watch. When you can’t watch your back, God is always watching and nothing the enemy has planned against you would be hidden. All the schemes of the enemy will be exposed.

When all hope is lost, God says He is still in the boat!