Articles: BUT,GOD IN HEAVEN KNOWS TAYE IS MY MOTHER'S PIKIN, NOT MY PIKIN!

...I don't know if my own story would fit into the types that file in here, I just want to tell it.
I've been a woman since I can remember...I don't know how old I am in numbers, but I know I was already in class 5 when Abacha became head of state.

I was born in Kantagora, Niger state and,there we lived until my Dad got so sick I was withdrawn from school to look after him, being the first child.
Shortly after,series of things happened which are simply a bleak memory to remember.

But, I can remember some men coming in at the break of the dawn,one day, and picking up,my well wrapped up in curtain father;
I can remember crying and telling my little sister and brother that he had died and was taken to be buried;
I remember my then, heavily pregnant mother hassling us along behind the men. But, we weren't taken to the burial ground after all.
We were boarded into an "Eko ni Ibaje" motto,instead.

That was when my little head realized that we weren't going to the burial ground,but that my Mother was sending us all back to Lagos,while she'll stay back with her lover( who was to be the father of her unborn baby).
Taye and Kehinde, my little siblings,wailed and yelled but she seemed too occupied bargaining the transit price to even hear her children cry. At that moment I wiped my tears off as I realized I had automatically become "Iya".

I hated the woman with the whole of my guts until a year after my dad had passed on and I was setting to watch my younger brother die,too. This is because now, I was beginning to understand that she had just wanted an escape from the heavy burden of bad lucks as I was edging to as well. So many times I had dreamt of running away,leaving my two siblings and ailing grandmother behind!

A nurse, who was our neighbor disclosed to us that my little brother was dying of full blown aids,which must have been what killed my father.
After my little brother's death the bad lucks didn't seem to end as we had another roll of it rolled up.
It turned out that the story my grandmother gave my father,about them being real Lagosians was a LIE. The land on which she and her husband had built on was actually a government land thus,was reclaimed.
This had us move to Ogun state. At this time I was growing breasts already;had begun farming and hawking garri to sustain my family (Me,Taye and my yet again, ill grandmother).

One day, I picked little Taye and followed our neighbor who was going to Sabo,Lagos. And we never went back to Ogun state.
From that moment, I did everything to sustain me and my sister Taye. Did boi-boi for motor park people, did part time prostitution for Yaba night motorists and so forth.
Until one day, an Igbo motorists chairman told me he wanted us to live together and I agreed. We never went to church nor village for marriage but since we were living together with a little girl people just assumed we were a couple.

Because I was too popular in that park we moved to Ikorodu, where we lived for 9years.
Everything looked normal but I couldn't take in. We tried and tried. I took all types of Fulani herbs and Ijebu mixture but nothing happened.
Since people around didn't know that Taye was not our child they just assumed we had a child.
While I can forgive anyone for this misconception, as Taye had practically been my own to raise from childhood, I can not forgive my husband for it!
It surprised me that when his sisters had come to throw me OUT,accusing me of blocking my womb from conceiving so that another child would not share the INHERITANCE of husband with Taye,Baba Nnamdi,my husband,could not defend me!
Baba Nnamdi who used to be my constant customer while I was in the prostitution business.

Baba Nnamdi that knew me in the early days of my migration into Lagos, with whom I had struggled, joined money to build our first bacha-house, joined money to buy our first danfo-bus; now connived with his sister to throw my bags outside,calling me OLD CARGO!Liar!
But,God in heaven knows Taye is my mother's pikin not my pikin!
Only God in heaven knows that this my breasts have never been sucked by a baby before!
Only God will judge my husband and his sister!
Now, I don't know where to start from!
I feel like I am back at that Kantagora motor park again, where my mother had dumped us!

It appears that life will never give me rest from plenty WAHALA!
How can I start again!
Where will I start!
I just want to run... but I can't leave Taye,my SISTER!
What do I do,Nora?
‪#‎the‬ life of a girl...!
‪#‎lend‬ a helping hand to a girl today...!
‪#‎Nora‬ Johnson.

Pls N/b: #the life of a girl stories are true life stories of everyday girls who have been left very sensitive,and so your comments should heal and not scorch them. It is in no way related to the personal experiences of Nora Johnson.God bless you!

Written by Nora Johnson.