AUNTY NURSE

This is a true life story, it happened to a woman I knew.

The stinging pain made tears cloud my eyes, then she pressed the syringe down, and it was as though the needle came in contact with my bones. She removed the needle, and sharp pain that reminded me of my school headmasters knock followed; the famous knock on the head that could give you an instant headache. But, all through the pain I refused to cry, because she had promised me sweet and biscuit if I stayed calm.
'My strong baby' She said, beaming with pride. The look on her face made all the pain worth it. She ruffled my hair and handed me a packet of biscuit, and a sweet we called Baba dudu. That was one of my many experiences with Aunty Nurse.

Aunty Nurse, was a fair beautiful woman. Unlike so many nurses, she was kindhearted and gentle. She was the only nurse on our street then, so people trooped in and out of pharmacy, but she made everyone feel important.
My mother used to say, she had the talent of love. 'Some people don't have love but they show love. That's talented love'. Unlike my mother, I didn't think Aunty Nurse didn't have love in her life. But since she wasn't married, didn't have kids, didn't have any relation we knew about, most people considered her lacking in the love department. I felt she had the greatest love of all; she had love for herself.
I guess it was the frequent murmuring about her single status that pushed Aunty Nurse to get married to a fair, stout looking man, who had a permanent frown. I don't even know if they courted. We just found him one day married to our Aunty Nurse. Everyone was happy for her 'Of course she who has found a husband, has found fulfillment in life'.

Things began breaking in bits, and becoming clearer when Aunty Nurse got pregnant. She would always come to the pharmacy with one bruise or the other. Nobody asked her what was happening instead they gossiped about it, and pitied her. Everyone knew her Husband was abusing her.
She became withdrawn, and quiet. Her cheery nature had gone to the winds, they were no more biscuits and sweets, just a stern 'Stay calm if you don't want this needle to break in your bum bum'.
No one said anything, after all she was not the only woman whose husband was beating her.
Nurse gave birth to twin boys. Very beautiful kids. And, they brought back some of her cheery nature, but not all.
Her husband was a jobless man, all he did was play chess with some ogogoro drinking men, but that too didn't matter, because of course 'She who has found a husband, any husband at all, has found fulfillment in life.'

No one knew it would happen. No one even thought of it, because it seemed unthinkable, that he would beat her to death. But, he did. According to gossip, he pounded her head on the ground a thousand times. Till she died in his arms, screaming and kicking, pleading and begging. No one knew what they were fighting over, we just knew that one day Aunty Nurse was gone, and a man she shared her bed with, gave the best part of her life to, and had children for, killed her.

*In my memory of a beautiful woman, with the kindest heart. May her soul and the souls of all the departed, rest in perfect peace. Amen