Que Sera Sera - Conclusion

Hello People, I promised to conclude this story today, I hope that by posting at this time, I have fulfilled my promise. Sometimes, it takes a little while to get approval from the party or parties involved in. If they are gracious enough to share their stories, then a little patience should be in order. It is a bit long today but I'm responding to some people who did not take lightly, the moment of suspense.

Once again, fictional names have been used for privacy sake.

It was obvious that the marriage between Jide and Oyibo had broken down irretrievably. They had lived apart for over two years and Jide had no idea where his children were. This broke his heart but life had to go on. He frequently received calls from unknown numbers that turned out to be Oyibo requesting for the children’s upkeep and she would provide ways of payment. Although he didn’t know the whereabouts of his children, he made sure of one thing, he catered to their needs as demanded by their mother Oyibo.

A school of thought would hold the view that it takes two to tango and so Jide had a lot to do with the breakdown of his marriage. He was married to Oyibo but his heart belonged to someone else and that left no room for Jide to give his one hundred percent to his marriage. He knew that there was someone that he could fall to if anything went wrong in his marriage.

Jide’s marriage to Oyibo may have been turbulent but did Jide do enough to salvage it? Isn’t marriage meant to be for better or for worse? Did he make adequate efforts to bring his wife back when his family sent her packing?  

Another school of thought may argue that there was no marriage from the beginning for it could be assumed that Jide loved another before he met Oyibo. Jide could have been confused about his feelings and may not have known that it was possible to openly love a much younger person. Whatever the circumstances may have been, one thing was sure, there was a vacuum in Jide’s life which needed to be filled.

Jide had all the time and energy to focus on the one person that he could not stop thinking about, and of course, the inevitable happened, he rekindled his love with Tutu. By this time, Tutu was already studying Medicine in the University.

Jide was not bothered anymore for he had come to the realisation that everyone had the ability to love regardless of age. He almost lost Tutu and so this time, he promised himself to do whatever it entailed to make Tutu his wife.

You would think that Jide’s family would be happy that he would at last settle down with someone who was to him first, a daughter, then a sister, a companion, and now a lover. They resisted the union with everything in them and even accused Tutu of being the cause of Jide’s failed marriage. It was a long battle but Jide stood by his decision.

On the other side, Tutu fought her own battles, she was seen by her school mates as strange for she wouldn’t mingle with any boy. She kept to herself and focused on her studies. The home front wasn’t without complications either, Her parents were not happy, Jide was like a son to them, he was the respectful young man in the neighborhood; who extended an arm of friendship to all their children and became to them, a mentor and big brother. They felt betrayed and were unprepared for the scandal that would trail their daughter. The society showed no mercy to a woman who got married to a previously married man.

Although they made known their disapproval, Tutu’s parents had no other choice than to stand by their daughter as she was determined to be with her love, Jide.

In all of the brouhaha, a child was born to Tutu and Jide, this further solidified their love. The birth of this beautiful baby brought some sort of unity between the two families and so it was only natural for them to allow the two love birds to legalise their union with a marriage. It took almost fifteen years for Jide to finally be with his true love.

Although, Jide’s new family had started growing with the birth of more babies, he still longed to see his children with Oyibo. He yearned for them and prayed to God that one day, he would see them. He still sent money for their upkeep, doing this kept his hope alive that his children were doing okay and he would see them again.

Fast forward to the year 2017, a young man contacted Jide through a social media platform; it looked like a prank, or a fraud, but it was real. Jide’s prayers had been answered. His twenty something year old son found him! He had searched for him for several years. Jide quickly made arrangements for his two grown sons to come home to him immediately.

Another chapter opened in Tutu’s life. She suddenly became a step mother to Jide’s two adult sons. Eche and Ogunna. The younger son Ogunna, was a bit withdrawn, he accused his father of neglect, they were both surprised that their father lived in affluence when they both had to struggle daily just to feed. Eche had to take up teaching in a missionary school and used the little money he made to pay for his younger brother’s education. Why? What of Oyibo? Oyibo had abandoned her two grown sons, she told them it was time to fend for themselves. They had lived in a shelter in an Asian country where she absconded to with them. Asia? All these years, she made Jide believe that they were somewhere in Europe.

They were brilliant boys who had won scholarships to two different colleges in the United States.  Jide and Tutu were shocked to hear of all the ordeal that they had been through. It took Jide, providing every bank teller of the transaction he ever made for his children’s upkeep to prove to them that he did his best to take care of them.

All these years, they had believed that their father hated them and never wanted anything to do with them. It took a lot of love from Tutu to warm their broken and cold hearts. And when she did, they opened up to their new family and life. They accepted Tutu as their mother and told her secrets that they would tell no one else. Jide was the happiest he had ever been in all his years of living.

During one of their private conversations, Tutu noticed that Eche’s left eye was a bit tilted. Being a medical doctor, she asked him some questions and quickly did some simple physical tests on him. She discovered that handsome Eche was nearly blind in one eye. Eche explained that his left eye had been that way for over three years. He complained to his mother but she never took him seriously. Eche confided in Tutu that their mother Oyibo seriously exhibited behaviours that made it obvious that she needed mental evaluation. She fought him and his brother whenever she was angry; she hardly took them to the hospital even if they were visibly sick. It suddenly added up why Oyibo acted the way she did while she was married to Jide.

Tutu took Eche for further medical examination and it was discovered that he had a huge brain tumour. Jide’s world came crashing again, what a brief period of joy. The tumour was sitting on a nerve that was causing him to go blind in his left eye. Tutu immediately swung into action; as a medical doctor, she understood the urgency and so took every necessary quick step to get a second opinion in the United States of America. The diagnosis showed that with the size of the tumour, Eche would get a stroke in a few days and pass on in less than a week. He was immediately admitted for an emergency surgery. As at the time of writing this story, Eche had undergone the surgery to remove the tumour, he is out of coma and learning to do everything all over again. (Please remeber him in your prayers). His younger brother Ogunna has settled in his new College in the United States.

With tears in his eyes, Jide said to Tutu, “you were sent to me, not just to love me but to help save the life of my first born child”. “Que Sera Sera” (Whatever will be will be) were Tutu’s words to her husband.

As human beings, some of us may frown at Jide and Tutu’s relationship, but Tutu was an instrument used by God to save Eche’s life. She also provided a mother figure at a time in the boys’ lives when they needed it.

We may condemn or praise or judge all we want but God’s ways are not man’s ways and “Whatever will be will be”