God Sent

God sent

I had gotten married in my twenties to who I thought was the love of my life. We are both  of the same race. The relationship wasn’t without its issues during our courtship but I thought no relationship was perfect we only need to work through our issues. I had my first child a month after my wedding. Then it became a very turbulent marriage. We had a lot of issues but I will leave that story for another time.

Fact forward six years later the marriage hit the rocks and I became a single mother of a boy and girl. They meant the world to me. With them I was more than content. I was in Europe with my children but had to return home to Africa when we had immigration challenges. I went back home to my family, we were received with open arms, they were very supportive especially in caring for my kids. We had a roof over our heads, we never thought about where the next meal will come from which is one beautiful thing about African culture. After a while my kids lived with their dad for some time, then he relocated and they came back to me at my parents. My ex was involved in their lives but he was very spiteful to me so the kids avoided anything that will make us communicate. 

We only communicated through our kids which was fine with me because I was tired of watching over every word I utter, reading a text I had written over a million times so he won’t get offended but no matter how I tried to be civil he still managed to have a reason to flare up with something I have written or said.  It was really bad.
I never gave up going back to Europe with my kids. My son finished high school and we were still in Africa but I kept praying, believing God, I had dreams of them attending tertiary institution outside the shores of Africa. It wasn’t easy being s single mom but I trudged on.  I soon got a job, moved out of my parents place but my kids stayed back and stayed weekends with me because if they had come with me there will be no one to be with them when they returned from school but at my parents my mum was always around, God bless mothers. The job helped in paying the bills but it was difficult meeting all my children needs especially the times their dad reneged on paying their school fees, he did that from time to time with impunity. I have had it with marriage and I wasn’t ready to go that route again.

After a while after I had completely healed and gotten over my crashed marriage, my heart opened up again and I considered giving marriage another shot.  A childhood friend had gotten married and moved to Europe to join her husband. We barely communicated, I was closer to her sister who lived in the same city with me.  This friend in Europe called me up one day and wanted to know if I won’t mind if she gave my number to her husband’s friend. She introduced me to Klaus and we got talking and became friends. 

We were both of different race but it didn’t make any difference to me. At this time I was only interested in love, love knows no colour and so we started a long distance relationship. He proposed, I accepted. We got married in a quiet ceremony here in Africa. 

He met every member of my family, I had told him about them all and when he met them he knew who was who and remembered all their names. I joined him in Europe some months after our wedding. By this time my son had moved to Canada for his tertiary education and my daughter was in her final year of high school and would be joining her brother soon. Life was good and Klaus was a good man, he wasn’t rich in worldly goods but his heart was rich. Our marriage wasn’t perfect but it was a far cry from my first marriage. I met his own family and we got on well, he was also divorced with two sons in their twenties.   

I got to know about Klaus health status after we got married and the entirety of it when I moved to Europe to join him. I was driving him from one hospital to another. It was then it dawned on me that he had risked his life to come to Africa for two weeks for our wedding because he had no medical attention all through that time and I was clueless about his health condition. Two years after our wedding, Klaus became very sick and he passed on. I was devastated, just when I though I had it all together, just when I though I finally had a chance to prove I can make my marriage work. You see I had plans, I had dreams and it all fizzled before my eyes but in my grief God was able to make me see what the two years meant to Klaus. 

Apparently he knew he didn’t have much time but he didn’t let me on it. He said to me he kept hearing God’s voice saying to him go to Africa, for someone who had never visited Africa and didn’t even go to church but knowing he had but a few years he followed his heart and he had the two best years of his life- his words not mine. He was a lonely, sad, miserable man before we met, afraid he was going to spend his last days all alone because his kids are all grown with their own families. He said meeting me added color to his life. God in his infinite wisdom saw that lonesome soul in Europe, came down to Africa to bring healing to him. It taught me God can go to any length even to the ends of the earth to bring succor to His children, the bible says He will bring a man from a far country to perform his counsel.  I feel blessed that God saw me worthy enough to make the best out of the last days of Klaus. what a honor. I grieve because he left too soon but he left a fulfilled man. He in turn left me a legacy that will be a constant reminder of how God can prepare your future without your input.

Still heart broken, 
Helen


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