Her journey episode 1

*~HER JOURNEY
*~ ?
Episode 1

Growing up as a child, Agnes lost her parents to the cold hands of death at the age of 7. She was poorly raised by her parent's relatives. She was 10 years old when she left her hometown(Lagos) to live with her late Father's younger sister in Ibadan.

Seven years later, HER Life's JOURNEY started when she met Roland, her husband.
Thier love story started on a beautiful 1st day of January in 1975, in Ibadan, it seems like an unknown force was at work and made Roland to meet Agnes that day. it was love at first sight.

Roland loved her and sent a proposal through one of his brother and they got engaged! Roland was in the Merchant Navy and was travelling most of the time, but thier courtship was filled with letters wanting to know more about each other. The wait between sending the letter and receiving one in the post box are the things Agne's memories are made of.

Agnes was 18 years old when she married Roland and had a beautiful baby girl soon after, who she named Benita, She initially planned to continue studying after she had her first child but a year later she was pregnant with her second baby, with another baby on the way, she did not take her education forward and in few months she gave birth to her second baby girl, who she named paulina. Paulina was two years old when she got pregnant for the third time.

At 22 years old, Agnes had her third child and the child was also a girl who she named Chloe. When her three daughters were of age, She put all her children in the care of their Nanny and travelled the world with her husband. After a while though, She decided to stay in thier home and pay attention to her daughters while Roland was away.

Merchant Navy was a glamorous job but has its own drawbacks. Agne's husband used to visit home once in many months. He only saw the children grow up in pictures. Though he was very supportive. Agnes managed everything on her own. She was a stay-at-home mom and she made sure her children was receiving a good education and a solid value system, as any parent would want.

Agnes was 28 years old, when she received the biggest blow of her life,
News came to her that Roland her husband- the only good thing in her life, passed away, leaving her with three daughters. Roland was 37 years old when he died, he had plans to retire at 40 and spend time together with his family and make up for the lost times before the inevitable happened- Death.

Agnes almost went crazy and many times, she contemplated suicide to escape seeing her children suffer, because they lost thier home -She was chased away with her daughters, her husband's relatives seized Roland's properties and refused to let Agnes gain access to any of her husband's wealth, thier reason was that she didn't have a male child and the worst was Roland did not prepare his Will.
They chased her away and she was not given a chance to perform even her late husband's funeral rites and the worst was that they didn't allow her to see his corpse.

"go back to your family with your daughters, we don't need you or your daughters, you didn't even give my brother, a heir and you want to remain here, you are a witch and a wicked person" Roland's brother threw at her, Agnes was so shattered and broken as a result of everything that was happening in her life, she had lost everything her husband owned and was chased away empty handed with 3 daughters to cater for.

Agne's children had to live with different people at different places. These are children who had never spent one night even at a relative's house. It's was too hard for her to handle and that broke her down. She was depressed and she didn't have a job and was not properly educated.
She even contemplated committing suicide many times but again, she thought of the stigma it would leave on her daughters. Those were the darkest stage of her life and she became a shadow of her self.

She started her life all over again cause its a new phase entirely she had to put the little money that was left and then, She returned to her home town- Lagos, with her daughters, She decided to humble herself and to stop feeling sorry for herself by taking any jobs no matter how menial that came her way, so she could feed her children. She went to offices and asked for any job, even when she was turned away- because she was not qualified, it didn't deter her.

Life turned Agnes into a strong hearted woman. The task of raising her children were only on her, she made sure that her daughters were properly raised with the little money she derived from her menial jobs.
She struggled so much to raise her 3 daughters, the struggle and hardship was so much, but she was very strong and brave enough to face whatever life throws at her.
"I need to be strong for my children, I am the only parent, they have now, Roland is gone and he is never coming back to us" She had thought

Agnes continued to struggle to cater for her daughters, until One day, she met someone ~that changed her life completely. She met Collins, her late husband's best friend who travelled out of the country two years ago, Collins was so shocked to see her, they met at the busiest OSHODI bus stop and Co~ llins had to reverse his car and then he got down from his car to confirm if it was really Agnes, her best friend's wife, cause she looked miserable.

"Agnes, is that you?" Collins said and ~he stared at her from her head to toe
"Mr. Collins is me oh, Good afternoon sir" Agnes said calmly as she wiped sweat from her face
"what are you doing here?" Collins asked
"I work i~ nside the market, I get paid for carrying people's goods to the bus stop where they can get bus to thier destination" Agnes replied smiling

"You carry loads? Why did you leave ~your marriage? Why did you leave your husband?"Collins threw in at once
"oh Mr Collins, you have not heard?" ~Agnes said and she burst into tears
"My Husb~ and, your friend died seven months ago and the following week, his brothers ~chased me and my daughters away, I was not giv~ en a chance to stay for his burial, I had no one to go to, my aunt, who I was staying with at Ibadan before I got married, had relocated~ with her family to her husband's town and so I decided to return to my home town" Agnes narrated in tears

"Roland, dead? I saw Roland last week and we spoke on the phone yesterday, Roland is not dead oh, I'm beginning to think that they tricked you, cause Roland married a new wife, few months ago and when I asked him of you, he said you moved out of the marriage on your own free will and that you are a shameless woman" Collins said and the next thing, Agnes fainted and Collins rushed her to the nearest hospital.


To Be Continued