Sunmola Olowookere
Wonders, they say, will never cease. Events unfolding in our neighbourhood are stranger than fiction.
A widow recently died at lane 1 of our neighbourhood and her death has left residents puzzled due to the bizzare circumstances of her death.
On the day she died, she had complained to her children of a blinding headache and demanded to be taken to the hospital.
Although her children were puzzled as to why she demanded to be taken to the hospital over a mere headache that could be cured by a dose of paracetamol and sound sleep.
When she refused their advice to take drugs and sleep off the headache, they unwillingly got a taxi and left for the hospital. She was in the throes of a deep and unexplainable pain.
As fate would have it, she gave up the ghost before the doctor could attend to her. As she breathed her last, her children’ scream of shock had attracted the doctors and nurses on duty and they rushed to the point. But it was too late, she was gone
They tried to resuscitate her but it was of no use. Both the hospital workers and her children were in deep shock. The nurses thought she was putting up a drama so she could be allowed to see the doctor immediately she was brought in.
When they were told she was suffering from headache, they felt her casee could wait. The doctor was busy. After all, it was just headache, they reasoned. However when the unthinkable happened, they realized that they had made a grievous mistake.
It could the interference of the security officials of the hospital to a free for all fisticuffs as the children of the deceased were enraged. They were all teenagers. Their father died three months earlier and then, their mother followed suit, leaving them as orphans.
They called their neighbours to broke the news of their mother’s demise. It was a terrible day in the neighborhood as their close neighbours howled in shock. The corpse was then deposited in the mortuary.
The neighbourhood practically buzzed. What could have killed? Some fingered her in laws, other blamed her. According to the grapevine, her husband died of a diabolical sexual affliction popularly known as thunderbolt (magun).
Everyone in our neighbourhood heard about his scandalous death and much of the sympathy was with the wife who would now have to take care of the children by herself.
Despite her grief, her husband’s family members accused her of afflicting their son with the dreaded magun.
They demanded that she must swear to proclaim her innocence. During the burial, those that attended the burial testified how she asked her husband’s ghost to come for her if indeed she was the one that afflicted him with magun.
Her strange and sudden death has given even her staunch supporters some doubts as residents wondered if she is indeed guilty of the allegations levelled against her.
