I came from what is described as a polygamous home, a home in which the father has numerous wives, of which my mother was the second. My house was not the typical house as it was divided into various sections, each section belonged to a wife.

My mother was a beautiful Nigerian girl born into a nuclear family. All she knew was her own way of life, until she married my father. she was from a fairly poor background, where as he was born from a chieftain family. She was the first of six children, her mother was a food seller and her father was a taxi driver. They were a family of dedicated Muslim, her father was an Imam.

My father was born and raised in a polygamous home, he was the last child of the second wife, hence he was treated with more contempt, and everyone wanted the chieftain title, so he ended up being sent to a different town at the age of five. After he clocked fourteen he realized he wanted more for himself, so he decided to go to the most busy state in Nigeria, Lagos. There he worked his way up, married his first wife, built his own company, had two children, then went through a divorce.

It was a sombre evening, a young woman can be seen standing outside of a restaurant, and a man was passing by, but he stopped upon seeing this woman, he stared for the longest time before deciding to eventually walk in. When he got inside the young woman asked what he would like to eat. He gave his order and she served him, he finished eating, left, and kept coming back everyday.

A month later, he asked for her name, two months later he professed his love, 1 year later he asked her to marry him. They had a small but beautiful wedding, it was a Muslim wedding that honored, her, herself, her family, and her God, but it was the last of her being a Muslim woman, my father was a Christian and he was hell-bent on having her convert. It was the beginning of her hardships but she was blind to it.

"Happy Married life" everybody said to the couple. A young lady marrying a man with two kids was not abnormal, but at the same time it was not easy, getting the kids to accept her was not a problem as their mother was never there. The poor kids were just glad to finally have someone who cared for them. She did not expect much from him, but still marriage was not what she wanted it to be, in fact it was harder than she thought. At the tender age of 19 she took on the role of both a mother and a wife. Not knowing what the future had in store for her, she gritted her teeth and endured.

Certificate of Marriage

THIS HERE CERTIFIES THAT

IYABODE ADUKE RAIMI

&

ISIAH KOLAWOLE OKE

were joined in matrimony

Saturday.

the sixth of September, 1979.

After marriage the couple decided to work together in his small company to help it grow, he owned a company responsible for shipping government supplies. They worked hard at their jobs, they got more government contracts and their business relationship was strong meanwhile their marriage was really struggling.

It's been a couple months and she became pregnant with her first child. The marriage was blessed with the fruit of the womb, but not with peace, he never made her happy for a day. He was a great father just a horrible husband. He was not a liar but he was an adulterer, he was not by any means lazy, if anything he was a hard worker. She looked around and realized it would be deemed absurd for her to break up her marriage because her husband is cheating on her. In Nigeria, a man is allowed to marry multiple wives. she realized that she would never change him so, she gave up and she focused on her kids.

Kola and Segun were his kids from the other marriage, whereas she gave birth to a girl and named her Esther. The kids grew up together and truly loved having a baby sister to care for. Their parents were not as happy together, they were trying to keep their relationship going, but she was doing the trying not him. she wanted to keep enduring him because the children needed their parents and she knew there was no way she could win custody. She was working with him which also created a situation of lack of independence, so if she left she would lose her kids because she would not have the financial stability to raise all three kids, and she knew she could not abandon her step kids like their mother did, because if she did they would never forgive her for it.