Febi was a prodigal. A prodigal daughter. She had a few things in common with the proverbial prodigal son. She left home when she had no business doing so. She returned poorer than she’d been when she set out. And most importantly, she was given a second chance to get her life and dreams back on track.
Febi lived with her older sister in the cosmopolitan city of Lagos, Nigeria. It was a world away from the small town of Osogbo where she had grown up. Her sister worked as a cabin crew member with an international airline and was frequently away from home and it was Febi’s responsibility to look after her sister’s two children.
She was a very beautiful young girl, slim and tall with endless legs and long hair that easily fell past her shoulders. She was the very epitome of beauty. Men turned to look at her everywhere she went. They not only looked but they also approached. All kinds of men were interested in Febi. Tall men and short men. Rich men and poor men. Educated men and uneducated men. Married men and unmarried men. They all wanted a piece of Febi.
Febi was not interested in men. She had her hands full looking after her sister’s children and pursuing her dreams of becoming a successful interior decorator. She was just twenty and her sister had given her a huge sum of money to launch her business not too far from home so she could be readily available to help with her niece and nephew.
No one knows for sure how, when and where Febi met Reuben. Reuben was a jobless man who had a big mouth and talked a little too much for a man. He claimed to be a government contractor and constantly talked out bidding for jobs worth hundreds of millions of naira. Anyone with eyes could see he had never seen a tenth of that money gathered in one place. Any discerning person knew that the man was a combination of a con artist and a gigolo.
He spent a lot of time with Febi at her business place. He appeared to have a lot of time on his hands, too much time for a man who was a government contractor. No one suspected he was anything to Febi other than a nuisance who hung around her office telling stories about his life, a life that seemed far removed from reality. Most people assumed that sooner or later he would disappear from Febi’s life as he had appeared.
He did disappear but it was later rather than sooner, and it wasn’t before he had done some damage. How Reuben with the sweet mouth convinced beautiful Febi to elope with him remains a mystery to most. But he did. Family, friends, and neighbours were shocked to learn that Febi’s sister had returned from one of her work trips abroad and was frantically looking for her. Febi had shut down her business place, sold everything in it, cleared out her belongings in her sister’s home, and disappeared into thin air.
She had run off with Reuben, a man more than ten years her senior. A jobless man full of dreams which he talked about endlessly while sitting on his backside instead of working hard to achieve them. Reuben did not have a penny to his name and relied on everything Febi had earned from her business or received as a gift from her sister. Febi had run off with Reuben, hoping he would marry her, and they would start a family together.
For about four years, no member of Febi’s family knew where she was. All they knew was that she had eloped with this smooth talker, Reuben. They also knew that she wasn’t missing so they sent out no search party and neither was her disappearance reported to the police. As the family were Christians, prayers were frequently said for her.
It took four years before Febi came to her senses. Four years of hardship. Four years of lack and want. And after four years, just like the prodigal son made his way home to his father, Febi made her way back to her older sister’s house from where she had eloped. She did not return alone however, she returned with two little girls, her daughters born to Reuben.
In most cultures in Nigeria, it is a shameful thing, for a woman to have children out of wedlock. If Reuben had married her, even during the time they eloped and albeit without the consent of her family, it would have been a better deal but there was no marriage with Reuben and yet she had two children for him. If she had one child it would have been better, but two children? Who would marry her with two children? These were the thoughts in the hearts of everyone as Febi moved from her sister’s house back to her parents’ home.
As far as everyone was concerned, it was over for Febi where marriage was concerned. Her father, naturally, was very angry because he had been denied the honour of walking her down the aisle and giving her to her husband. She had brought him two grandchildren born to a man who was a total stranger to him and who never deemed it fit to come to him asking for her hand in marriage, as the custom demands.
In the years that followed, Febi resigned to live the life of a desolate woman, the life of a widow (whichever is worse) in the house of her father. She became an object of mockery and ridicule. People mocked and sneered at her face and behind her back. She accepted this without complaint, never bothering to answer those who reviled her. She got a job so she could provide for her children, and she threw herself into service to God. She rededicated her life to God and from that point she did not look back. She had no true friends as everyone was critical of her past and had concluded on her future and so God became everything to her.
As Febi’s new romance with the God who can do the impossible blossomed, a young man in her office began to take an interest in her. This was strange to Febi because people had concluded that even if by some stroke of luck, a man was to take interest in her, he would be a single father. Well, this man had never been married and had no children, so Febi felt the need to explain to him her peculiar circumstances, while it was still early days. She made it crystal clear that she was not the kind of woman he wanted to be in a relationship with. Well, the more she pushed him away, the more he appeared to be determined to marry her.
A few months later, Febi was married to this wonderful man she met at work. Her father had the honour of receiving her bride price and he also had the honour of walking her down the aisle. Her dignity within her family was restored. All naysayers and mockers were silenced.
God loves all His little girls. This is the conclusion of the matter. Even when they have messed things up and think they can no longer have the kind of future they once desired, God steps in to prove them wrong.
One woman has said, “If you think you’ve blown God’s plan for your life, rest in this. You, my beautiful friend, are not that powerful.” How true.
-The End-
© Eturuvie Erebor. All Rights Reserved.
