A Day of "Shame, Blame and Regrets"
To be or not to be
Odun used to be a cheerful, innocent looking young girl with a very beautiful voice. She was always happy to be in the presence of the lord, singing and dancing and all the congregation in the church admired and appreciated her talent. We don’t even know her that much but one can tell she is kind hearted. You’d always see her smiling and hardly ever gets upset like she had nothing to worry about but what changed?
In the middle of the service, on a faithful Sunday, she was suddenly called upon to the podium and since it’s been month we’ve seen her, we looked at her and the only obvious thing we noticed was her weight. She gained so much. We couldn’t help but think if she gave birth or something. I mean, is it not a thing that women gain weight after birth? Also, she wouldn’t gain weight in such a short period of time we were away right?
We were right. She got pregnant and the baby was right with us at church. They said, ‘she went to follow man and got herself pregnant’. We looked at her and her face screamed, ‘Regrets’. She was embarrassed. She was shamed. What exactly was she thinking of at that moment? we thought. She must have wanted to faint or wanted the ground to open up and swallow her or something. We just couldn’t process the thought of this happening. She didn’t seem like the type who would intentionally want to ruin herself and the family’s reputation.
You know, it’s really important to know the truth of the matter before judging. Odun was drugged and forcefully slept with. We were SHOCKED.
Why did the narrative earlier sound like, she put her body on a platter of gold to be useless just like that. It’s sad and disheartening.
You know one thing we’re glad about? She’s loved by her family because we think situations would have been worst if that wasn’t the case.
Even though it seemed like her family embraced her and other people tried to welcome her, she still hides her face and doesn’t want to be noticed. She runs from the public, avoiding any manner of confrontation or conversations. She feels somewhat ashamed of carrying her baby in public and we don’t blame her. She isn’t to be blamed.
We can only imagine her cursing the person we made her this way. We can only imagine the fear and regrets that eats her up inside that she desperately wants to escape from. We only hope she finds the peace she’s looking for.