When Bad Things Happen to Good People
Image: Hiverminer By Tochukwu Eziukwu When I heard the news of her death, I knew life will never be the same again for him. I knew that no amount of words, no river of tears, no number of company, will ever fill the void her demise has left in his heart. Life couldn’t have been more cruel. But life has always been cruel, just that we seem to be oblivious of its cruelty when it is happening to others. Didn’t you hear about the little baby that was thrown away at the road side by her teenage mother; that little baby who will spend the rest of her days not knowing her father or mother? Didn’t you hear about the 5 year old little boy who just lost his parents to a ghastly road accident and will now spend the rest of his days living under the mercy of relatives? What about that widow that just lost her only child to an unknown sickness? Do you know her? Didn’t you hear about it? I’m sure you heard about it, but it probably was just another sad story for you, another bad news. You may even have thought these events were taking place somewhere in mars and not on planet earth; after all they were too unreal to be happening on earth. But what you never realized was that somewhere in people’s homes, real tears were being shed, that somewhere in people’s heart, red blood was dripping freely. You never realized that somewhere in people’s memories, wounds that may never get healed were being inflicted. What you never realized was that these were not just stories, but real life tragedies that were happening to real people living in a real world. Real tears! Real pain! Real life! Life has always been cruel and will always be cruel. This is not about being negative or pessimistic. We’ve seen it happen in the past. It is happening today. Now what makes you think it won’t happen again tomorrow? Sure it will! Again, don’t judge me as being negative because I’m not. I’m just being forced to accept a reality I have always wished wasn’t true; a reality that bad things happen to good people. But I have seen it happen. I have seen bad things happen to good people over and over again. The first time I saw it happen, I thought it was a mistake. But then it happened again and it has kept on happening. A few days ago it happened again. He lost his wife, after they lost their baby; a newly married couple. He is a good man, and people speak highly of him. She was a good woman, whom people spoke and are still speaking well of. Why then should life be so cruel to them? Now she is gone, but he is left here with nothing but just tears; and to think that it was just about a year after their marriage makes it more heart-wrenching. Such pain! Such agony! Now he is in tears, and everyone is weeping with him. The questions are shooting out from every side. The same questions I’ve always heard when bad things happen to good people. Everybody is seeking for answers; answers they may never find. I have not lived long enough to know so many things, but one thing I have lived long enough to know is that there are questions we may never have answers for. Some may find this hard to accept, especially those of us who believe that everything in life has to make sense. It is even harder for those of us who believe that because of our faith in God, there has to be answers for everything; an explanation as to why bad things happen to good people. But we forget that the moment we assume that position of having answers for everything, then we stop being humans, and therefore assume the status of God, who is all-knowing. But we can only be humans! It might be humbling for some of us to accept that we don’t know everything after all, that there are things we may never have an explanation for, questions we may never have answers for; questions like why bad things happen to good people, questions like why she had to die like that. Life has always been cruel and will always be deemed cruel, especially when we lose a loved one. But for some of us, death is not the cessation of our lives, but the beginning of a better life in a better place. There we may find answers to all of our questions, but till then, let’s accept the fact that life can be cruel to anybody, any day, any time; and we would be left with nothing but questions without answers. In memory of a beloved sister.
Long Distance 3
Picture: Tarringo T. Vaughan Don’t know where the story started from? Catch up here!Adon Kato was beginning to get really angry. For the past two weeks, she had been caring for her boyfriend – Jason Ogbeche – and she didn’t need any heightened sense of perception to know that Jason wasn’t connecting with her. He always seemed to be brooding and if Adon didn’t know better, she could have sworn he was angry at her. He had to have two other surgeries when his kidney became infected and they almost lost him. The injured kidney was finally removed and he was doing better now. Adon stayed at his side all through. Dr. Anwar had to send her home many times to shower and eat. She took her bath in the hospital and ate hospital meals to get the doctors off her back. As soon as she was done with basic necessities, she would rush back to Jason’s bed side. Jason said very little to her. He only spoke when he needed his pain medications or was hungry. Adon would have understood if he was that way with everyone. He spoke to his parents about how he was really feeling and even laughed with them. What was more was that whenever Doctor Amara came into the room, he lit up and became a chatterbox. Adon watched the development and gradually grew depressed. She wanted to start a conversation (again) when Drs. Anwar and Amara, Jason’s parents and two nurses came in. Adon felt her chest constrict and deep down, she knew it was more from jealousy than worry at what the doctors had to say. Doctor Anwar started speaking. ‘I wanted to talk to all of you at the same time. Jason, how are you feeling?’ ‘I feel horrible.’ Jason said as he laughed. ‘Well…I am glad you can laugh about this. You are doing better and if not for that relapse last week, you could be on your way home this week. Your ribs are healing nicely and for now, your body is adjusting to having one kidney. Most of the other injuries have healed well and there is no more internal bleeding. On paper, you look good. But the human body acts as it wants for each individual. If you continue at this rate, we could have you home by the end of next week, with scheduled weekly checkup until the pins in your ribs are removed. That been said, I want to suggest that you see a psychologist and just talk. When you have near-fatal accidents like this, you could have post-traumatic stress disorder, leading to a warped perception of reality. One of it may be a heightened fear of driving and another may be attachment to certain individuals…’ Adon was piqued. Did the doctor notice what was happening? Was he trying to tell her something? Her eyes darted to Dr. Amara and to Jason and she saw them share a look. ‘….so, he should be home next week if everything goes well. I have drawn up a regimen to help you help him and you need to follow it to the latter. You can rotate between three of you so it is not…’ Jason’s mum interrupted. ‘I accepted to allow her stay here because you demanded that. But she will no longer be required when he comes home. We can take care of him ourselves. She is not welcome in our home.’ She punctuated her bile with the most vicious look. Adon looked at Mrs. Ogbeche and turned to look at Jason. He didn’t say anything. Adon open her mouth, but the words didn’t come. Jason looked away. ‘Jason, do you want me to stay or is your mother speaking for you?’ Adon asked huskily. The tears were threatening to fall. Jason said nothing. Dr. Amara started talking. ‘I don’t think this is the time or place…’ ‘Shut up! Just shut up!’ Adon exploded. ‘Don’t speak to her that way!’ Jason shouted right back at Adon. The silence in the room was deafening. Adon’s embarrassment was palpable. Adon looked at Jason, got up from the chair, gathered her things and walked out of the room. ‘Adon…wait..’ ‘Let her go Jason. She is bad news.’ Mrs. Ogbeche said. *** Adon sat in her car, crying her soul out. All the frustration that came from her inability to contact Jason that sorry day he left, to being in the hospital and the immense betrayal completely broke her spirit. She wanted to die; such was the pain in her chest. As the tears gradually piped down, it finally dawned on her that a figure had been by her window almost as long as she had been crying. She looked up from the blue scrubs to the gentle face of Dr. Anwar. She wound down her windshield. ‘I…I..am..s..ss…o..sorry Dr. A.nwa…r. I di…dn’t see you there.’ Adon said as she tried to control the spasms running through her body. ‘Don’t ever be sorry for being in pain. Now, scoot over. I will drive you to your hotel.’ ‘I..I..do..n’t…have…o..one.’ It dawned on Dr. Anwar just how much she had sacrificed for the man she loved. ‘I will take you to one. You are in no state to drive now. Don’t worry, it will be fine.’ *** ‘So you mean there is nothing I can do?’ Adon asked resignedly. ‘No, there isn’t. Sometimes, these things last for a week and sometimes, it lasts forever. The only thing that can change it is if his brain rewires itself, for lack of a better word. We cannot force the brain to do that.’ Adon started pacing as she contemplated what she had just heard. The doctor had noticed the fixation of Jason on Dr. Amara as he questioned him about his accident. He told her earlier on. ‘The accident was near fatal. If the ambulance had been as much as an hour (or even 30 minutes) late, he would have died. She was the last face he saw before he passed out and in his brain, she
