Linda Ali narrated an unending litany of ill-health. She stated that she had been bedeviled by mysterious and often inexplicable ailments off and on over the course of her marriage and into the years of her widowhood.
Her husband, a policeman, died in 2012 leaving her to cater for six children. According to her, he had erected a house in the village and refused to offer his sister a bedroom in it despite her request. He developed stomach ulcer shortly thereafter. The sickness took him through hospitals, laboratories, and even traditional places of healing without any improvement in his health. She said that he was told at one of those traditional places of healing that he had been poisoned through a drink of palm wine. After a prolonged and painful battle with the sickness, he died. By this time, all their resources and money had been drained in battling the sickness and they were practically destitute.
Upon his death, Linda’s in-laws descended in hordes, demanding that she give them the money her husband left behind. She informed them that there was no money in his account or anywhere else. To her shock, uncaring of her grief or traumatized state, her in-laws sent someone all the way to Abuja to follow her to the bank simply to check her husband’s account balance. She was vindicated when the bank account revealed the sum of Three Hundred Naira only (which is approximately less than a dollar as at the time of this writing); and they finally left her in peace.
Her family and her husband’s family have turned their backs on her; her own sister has only given her a cup of Ogbono since her husband’s death; and even her daughter-in-law disparagingly refers to her as a ‘mad dog’.
She said that when her son was getting married, she had gone to farm. In the course of weeding the farm, she struck something with her hoe. She double-checked and saw a black leather tangled in the weeds. She picked it to throw it away and it turned out to be a live snake. She flung it away and successfully killed it without getting bitten by it. To her surprise, when she got home, a growth had appeared on her back. The little growth led to a lot of complications and she had to have surgery. There were post-surgical complications because the nurse gave her an under-dose of recommended drugs. She ended up having to depend on charity from her church to treat herself properly. According to her, her health woes did not end with that surgery as she is currently still bedeviled by neck pain, typhoid, arthritis, and waist pain.
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