Unappreciated.

Mama was always the back bone of our family.
A selfless loving and caring mother who was ready to starve to death as far as her children eat.
Mama was never lucky in marriage, as the first man she got married to made her his antidote for being a half man.
He went as far as starving her, not allowing her eat from the meal she prepared.
Mama once told me how she sneaked some leftovers remained by visitors to eat after being starved for days.


As she was rushing to eat before the man returned, she didn't notice a large bone going into her mouth with the ball of fufu. It got stuck in her throat for four days. Four days of excruciating agony.
But mama endured. Until it was too unbearable. That's when she decided to leave the man
She remained alone for ten years, before she met my father.
And that's like jumping from frying pan into the open fire.
Papa was an animal in human clothing.
Many times we the children, I and my four junior brothers witness as papa will beat mama with so much ferocity like a lawman beats a hardened criminal.
Despite all these mama remain in the prison called marriage created by papa.
One day, I talked to mama to leave.
She sat me down and gave me reasons why she couldn't leave.
"Bella my daughter, you must learn to endure hardship no matter what. For the sake of your children in the future"
"Ha! Mama!! You call this endurance? Being treated like dirt? Mama I will rather remain single o, if this is what marriage is all about. God forbid I should marry someone like papa, I will kill him myself I swear!" I said vehemently.
Mama only smiled.
You see, mama was an angel.
She was the most beautiful woman I've ever laid my eyes on. Non of us shared her beauty. And yet, she was never appreciated by the men she got married to.
There was a time papa beat mama during the pregnancy of our last born until she was bleeding and became unconscious.
I screamed until some neighbors came and help take mama to the hospital. Miraculously enough, the baby was okay, and was born healthy.
It's was mama that will go out to find what we will eat.
Papa will seat with his numerous drunkard friends like him from morning till night, drinking their lives away.
And whenever he staggered home and the food is not ready, he will beat mama like some irresponsible maid.
I remember a time, when mama just deliver our third born.
She came back from the midwife quarter, there was no food for her to eat. Papa came back from his drinking spree and demanded for dinner, not minding that mama just gave birth.
Mama had no choice but to grind pepper and cook. I wasn't more than six years then, but I remembered the incident vividly.
Then, mama's freedom came.
We were on our way to one of the village's market to sell some of mama's farm produce.
The pick-up vehicle was already filled with passengers when we got to the main road.
But mama was determined to go with that last transportation for the day.
One, because there was nothing to feed on that day.
Two, because papa had threatened mama to provide money he will use in attending a burial ceremony that's got nothing to do with us.
So mama hanged onto the rear end of the vehicle, with our last born on her back.
Sometimes during the rough ride, the vehicle hit a deep pothole that wrenched mama's hands from the handle she was hanging unto.
People started shouting for the driver to stop. Some of the passengers closest to mama tried pulling her in. But it wasn't easy, with my baby brother strapped to her back.
"just help me take my son. Please remove my son from my back!"
Mama kept pleading.
By the time the drive would hear that he should stop, mama's hold was already weak. I remember watching helplessly as mama tried to hold on to the edge of the vehicle. I was far within, lapped by a good Samaritan.
The driver halted too quickly, and mama was flung under the tires of an oncoming vehicle, crushing mama's skull.
She died on the spot.
People started weeping.
Our neighbor took me and my saved brother back to papa.
"where is that useless woman? So she left my children in the hand of a stranger to go and meet her numerous boyfriends abi? She will meet me here today!"
The woman then explained mama's unexpected and gruesome end.
It was then that papa noticed my ashen countenance.
Not until then did papa realized he has lost his breadwinner.
I think that was when he remembered mama to be an angel.
That was when he stopped drinking.
That was when he realized what an ingrate and how wicked he has been to us and mama.
But it was too late to make amends.
That was how death freed mama from a life filled with mystery, bitterness. And a life of being unappreciated...