Damilola Fatunmise
In her own way of celebrating Mother’s Day, actress Iyabo Ojo has reflected on her broken marriage and all the pains she went through as a single mother of two.
In a six minutes video posted on her Instagram page during the week, the thespian, with tears, narrated her ordeal in the hands of her former husband as well as advised married and single mothers facing challenges to persevere, no matter what life throws at them.
Hear her: “Today, these tears are tears of joy, a grateful reflection of my past. I sit back today and all I can do is to be grateful. I am here to share my past, to give hope to a lot of mothers out there, married and single mothers, that no matter what you go through, take care of your kids. You have to always find that inner strength to move on no matter what life throws at you, try to move on. Always channel your love towards your children.
“I remember when I got married, on my wedding night, I discovered my husband did not love me. He said ‘I do not love you, I married you because you were pregnant’. I gave my life to Christ again and moved on because I could not move out of my marriage I just got into. I decided to have my baby in church, I did have him at Redeemed Christian Church of God, Mushin (in Lagos) and the first time that boy bumped out, all the pains, agonies, sadness, every guilt went away because I put all the love in that boy, Festus. I never extended any hate to him nor did I ever let him see these tears I shared today, because I made a vow to love him with all of me just because he didn’t beg to come into this world, I brought him into the world.
“Today, I am so happy that God answered my prayers. And in the bid of making my marriage work, I found out that I was pregnant again, and the problems were more because my husband was gone. Even while we were still together and I tried to love him with every bit of me, he didn’t understand my kind of love. But I won’t blame him because we are two different people, from two different backgrounds.
When I was about to have my baby girl, I did not have enough money with me, I had only one hundred and fifty naira. I didn’t want that baby but Pricilla just wanted to come, so I had to beg a nurse to help me deliver my baby in her room, because she lived a few blocks away from me. With no medication and any special attention, I had my baby. I took courage from the Hausa (women) living behind my compound; they used to have their kids in their rooms, so I thought I could do the same. But when my baby came, I fainted because I lost lots of blood. My husband couldn’t afford to take me to the hospital because he didn’t have money but God saw me through. I didn’t know what my kids were going to eat or what I would survive on, but God saw me through because I believed and stood strong.
“I raised those kids and I had to let go of the marriage because I needed my sanity. I needed to focus all my attention on my kids because they never begged to come into this world, I did and I had to raise them all by myself. And today, my tears are tears of joy. Everybody has a story to tell. Because He (God) loves us too much, I have also forgiven my husband. I pray that anywhere he is, he should move on because I have already moved on.”