OBSESSED INCEST (Part 11)

INTERMENT
She knew this day would come right from the first day he told her he had cancer, his days were numbered. She was crumbled and felt bare from within. She cried bitterly, her only companion was dead and never coming back, her world seemed to be over. She loved Mathew dearly. Some of the doctors and the nurses around came to console her. Her cries echoed everywhere. Mia and Williams stood by the body of their father motionless as loads of tears streamed their eyes. He never treated them right but the last months of his life, those were the only days they missed. Mia held the cold fingers of her father,
“daddy please don’t go please, we still need you” she was broken, Williams held her shoulders tenderly,
“daddy is gone Mia” he said, in a shaky voice.
A nurse came with a clean white sheet to cover Mathew’s body. Tina saw this and dragged the sheet away from the nurse.
“how dare you cover my husband like that, he is not dead, let’s give him time, he will return, don’t cover him up, it will suffocate him”. The nurse understood the grief she felt and left her alone. Everyone that came to console her left the room for her and her children to have some time with the body. Tina touched his arm,
“honey, please wake up, don’t leave us like this please, I beg you”. She placed her head on his chest and sobbed so much, “come back to us please”. After an hour the nurse came back with another nurse.
“Ma’am we need to cover the body up”
“don’t refer to him as the body, he has a name and its Mathew” Tina through her tears spoke firmly.
“I’m sorry ma’am, we need to cover Mathew up and take him away from here”
“where are you taking him to?”
“where its appropriate for him”. Tina and her children watched the nurse cover up the body and stood in despair as they wheeled the body away from the room. She collapsed.
It was two weeks since Mathew died. There was gloom everywhere in the home. Something was obviously missing. There was a loud silence all the time. None of them ate properly. Funeral arrangements were made. Extended family members started coming to fix a proper funeral service for Mathew. The date was fixed.
Stood with her black dress in front of the mirror and looked at her face, her eyes were swollen and red due to tears and sleepless nights. She slipped her feet into black shoes that she had not worn in ages. She didn’t want to go anywhere, she didn’t feel like seeing anyone but she had to. “Why did you have to leave Mathew” she thought as a tear escaped her right eye. She wiped the tear off and left the room. She got down to see her living room crowded with Mathew’s colleagues, even Trisha was there wearing a long black gown wiping her teary eyes with a black handkerchief. She could see Mathew’s brothers sitting down with solemn looks, she saw church members, most people were whispering loudly. Her mother was there attending to the needs of anyone. As soon as they saw her, they all went mute; some stood up to greet her. She nodded to anyone that greeted her, she couldn’t utter a word, the truth was that she had no words to say. Her mother made her sit down.
“your children are upstairs, when its time to leave I will call them down”. Tina nodded again. It was time to leave; everyone entered their cars and drove to the cemetery. The procession started. The pastor held the bible in his hands and spoke in a very sonorous voice, reading some verses in the bible. The coffin was laid to rest; she watched it go down and filled with a tremendous shock. She was asked to scoop some sand into the shovel given to her and throw it into the grave. She did as she was told, her children did the same thing then others followed. Williams and Mia were filled with sorrow as they watched the grave being covered up. The funeral was over and they trooped back to her house. As she got home she headed for the room, at this point it really dawned on her that her husband was actually dead and never coming back. Her mother was left to serve the people in the living room with light refreshments in the house, most people rejected but some accepted it and ate. Tina laid on the bed facing the ceiling, she was now a widow.
Weeks after the funeral, a large part of her was still resisting the knowledge that her husband who had died was not going to be around anymore. Sometimes she would find herself calling his name and searching for him in the house until her children would remind her that he was dead. Most times when she went out to get some few things in the house, she would find herself looking for him on the streets hoping to catch a glimpse of him. She started having powerful and desperate yearnings to see him, touch him and talk with him. She was devastated. She was restless and had several sleepless nights and lost appetite. She had dreams about Mathew. She started feeling angry at Mathew for dying and leaving her and the children alone. Life became meaningless to her, she stopped caring about anything, she lost concentration and became a depressed woman.
Everything in the home became disarrayed, everywhere started looking unkempt. Williams and his sister helped to keep the house in order a bit, but they too were going through their own phase, they grieved the loss of their father. No one talked loudly; they all spoke in low tones. Tina tried her best for her emotions not to affect her relationship with her children but the more she tried, the more she became distant from them. She would lock herself up in the room for hours. Williams and Mia had to look after themselves. Even though Mathew was gone, his presence was still felt, his scent was still in the house, his shoes and clothes were still visible. Tina would take his clothes and smell them one by one, pick up his photographs and talk to them. She would walk round the house to remember everywhere he had been in the house and what he was doing. He didn’t treat her well but she still loved him so much. Sometimes the images of him beating will come across her mind but she would shove it aside and say to herself,
“I loved him anyway”. Nothing could take away the hurt, the pain and the loneliness she felt. She would try to forget but it didn’t go away, Mathew died of cancer, that memory will continually be in her head for a long time. Sympathizers would come to console her, and give her words of encouragement and try to motivate her to stand up and face life once more. She would sit down quietly and listen with red eyes that still had tears in them. The death of Mathew drained her so much.
One evening she dressed up and drove down to the cemetery where her husband was buried. She got to the front of his grave and stood there crying.
“Mathew you were being unfair to me and the kids, but I loved you so much, I still love. I wish you were still here, I wish I could see you talk now, I wish I could hold your hands right now. I don’t know what to do Mathew, I am loosing track of life, I feel empty and dried up, I feel choked up”. She stood there crying, her bag fell from her hands as she covered her face. She felt a hand on her shoulder,
“I understand how you feel” the voice said. She turned round with teary eyes to see who spoke.
Please visit HealthFacts.ng for health tips.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hello, Thank you for taking your time to read this. Please like, tag your friends, comment and share.
Thank you.
‪#‎BarbraAustin‬