Certain deaths rock our hearts’ foundations and leave us with everlasting scars. Those scars never heal. They are part of the badge of existence and a reminder of a lost true love. Those we lost were fountains of our existence that sprouted true love. The story of Charles and Ngozi will forever be an encore to a love we can feel.
My grand uncle, the late Iyase Nwabaha was a beloved esteemed Chief and warrior, a famous herbalist who used herbs and other traditional concoctions to cure mental health challenges. He was also the Iyase of my hometown, Onicha Ugbo. In his vast mud estate in those days, there were various buildings and what we know today as gazebos. A few of the buildings were designated as his admission rooms for those who came to seek mental health treatments. Call it a herbalist’s psychiatric treatment center. I frequently visited my grand uncle as a young teenager at his Idumu Ubulu village. Baba Nwabaha raised my father. So as the first son of dad, dad made sure I visited his Uncle to pay homage and experience privileged traditional values and teachings from one of the revered custodians of Onicha Ugbo’s tradition, culture, and customs. I had witnessed and participated in administering traditional medicines to his patients.
Sometimes in 1976, a young man from Uromi was admitted to Baba Nwabaha’s native psychiatric clinic. The young man, perhaps, about 20 years old then experienced a mental health breakdown and was rambunctious and scripting when he arrived for treatments. During one of my visits to my grand uncle, I met Charles and assisted my grand uncle in administering herbal medicine to the young man.
Meanwhile, my uncle had a granddaughter who lived in the compound with her mother, Ngozi, she was a charming, curvy 16-year-old. She was an absolute young Onicha Ugbo beauty. She was affectionate and had a sexy breakout smile that spread her pretty face and teased various men. Young men attempted to seduce her, flirt with her, and plead for her young love, but Ngozi wasn’t a hometown silly girl.
Ngozi would always assist her grandfather in the care and cure process for his grandpa’s patients including the 20-year-old Charles. She took a special interest in nurturing young Charles to wellness and made sure he had his native medicines and herbs. She would feed him while he was restrained at the clinic.
A few months after Charles was brought for care and cure, his mental health challenges were healed. He was discharged. What most of us did not know was that Ngozi and Charles had developed strange feelings and fondness for each other. After Charles was discharged, he traveled back to his hometown and some months after, came to visit Ngozi. He became a regular visitor to Onicha Ugbo, just to be with Ngozi. Their secret love began to manifest in each other with Charles’ regular visits to Idumu Ubulu.
The unusual village love blossomed into a city magnificence. Soon, Ngozi finished her education and followed Charles to Warri to begin a new life as husband and wife, deeply in love, brought together by mental health challenges, care, cure, and romance. They found each other abnormally and never parted ways until….
They would marry, have children and grandchildren, and live for nearly 45 years as husband and wife until last Tuesday morning when Charles died after a brief illness.
The death of Charles is a deep cut to the hearts of our families who loved and supported this unscripted life’s love story, and especially to me who was privileged those days when Charles came for mental health care and cure. They survived the innuendos, the chats, and chants. Ngozi and Charles defined love for us and showed us what true love meant. Love can be ruthless, but two hearts that breathe and love can withstand that ruthlessness, the terrains of human existence, and conquer everything that is thrown at it. Ngozi and Charles’ story is a made-for-movie love story. But today, I mourn my dear in-law and friend, Charles Emiantor. I mourn with my cousin whose resilience and perseverance taught humanity the meaning of love. I mourn with their children and grandchildren as they prepare to bury a great father, husband, and grandfather who found love at the crossroads of healing care, and cure. Go well, my friend. May your amazing soul be granted eternal grace by the great architect of the universe. The angels are waiting.
AzukaJebose
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