Accused of infecting her husband with HIV, Angela’s mother survives in-law’s trauma and now trains undergraduate medical son

The strength of a mother as explained in Angela's story is indeed enviable

By Evelyn Okakwu

The story of Angela Madu is one story that touched my heart and surely will go a long way to impact positively on every one who believes in the beautiful gift of hope.
Angela; popularly known as Ella or Angel, as some call her, says she spends each day thanking God for the life of her mother and the many more testimonies she believes that God will use her dear mother and family, to teach the world.
Narrating her story, Angela says: “About 10 years ago, many Nigerians thought that HIV was a straight ticket to the grave. If anyone was found positive with the virus, the person was termed doomed, or about to die.
What made my mother’s story more peculiar was the fact that the circumstances surrounding her infection with the disease was such that most women, would have died from pressure and depression. But my mother! Strong and full of hope, fought for her life, all in a bid to see that her children did not end up, taking responsibility for their parents mistakes.
My mother suffered in different ways from my father. When we were little, I could count the number of nights my father didn’t beat up my mother. And more often than not, the problem had to do with my father’s promiscuous attitude.
On one night, the fight between them, got so bad that my father almost killed my mother with a knife, he had taken for that purpose.
It took the help of my elder brothers, who themselves were children; to get the knife out of my father’s hand. Yet still, my father threatened to kill my mother that night, if she dared to sleep under the same roof with him.
It was the intervention of an old family friend of ours, that prevented my father from carrying out his plan.
My mother had to go knocking
on his door at 1: am in the morning, to ask him for help.
About 2 years later, my father took ill, and his ailment defied all forms of local treatment, which he had always subscribed to.
Eventually my father had to go to the hospital, where he was told that he had been infected with HIV.
Rather than inform his family and find ways to treat the problem in peace, my father decided to go to the village and incite anger his family’s anger telling them, he got the infection from my mother, in a bid to clear his name.
My father was so selfish, that all he could think about was make himself look like a victim before the world.
I was still very young at the time, but I can still remember how my father’s family took the matter.
Only my grandfather’s second wife, who informed my mother about the plans of my father at village and told her how to save herself, did not take it too hard on my mother.
Rather she called my mother from the village and asked her to start coming down to the village and figure how she could overcome my father’s dangerous plans.
My mother, who was pregnant at the time, quickly called her family and went home to defend herself. It was that move by my mother and the decision to take her family along that became a kind of salvation for my mother.
At the village, my mother said her people came together and asked my dad to swear an oath to the deity if he was sure; it was my mother that infected him. When he was unable to do that, my father’s action became proof that my mother was innocent.
But some members of his family still felt bad that no harm came to my mother; they apparently held on to my dad’s story.
But that was not the worse part.
My mother managed to return to the city and went for medical checkup.
It was then found that she too was HIV positive, and that her child had been infected, since she did not discover on time, to prevent such.
One thing I would never forget about my mother at that time is that every night when my mother woke up to pray, and cry to God; she would add that if God gave her the strength, she will fight to survive for the sake of her children.
I think that singular resolve is the reason why I can share this story to the world today.
Although my mother lost her child at birth, to HIV, I can tell the world that my mother, who was diagnosed HIV positive exactly 12 years ago, is waxing stronger in health.
My father died 10 years back, but my mother has not stopped fighting hard for herself and for all of us.
As we speak, my mother; with the certain support of God, in heaven has been able to ensure that we all attain tertiary education. That’s not all! One of my brothers is presently studying medicine at the Lagos state University.
I decided to share this private life of mine, so that many women out there would learn that if you are hopeful, there is always a God of hope who is closer to us than we can imagine, and stronger than our every weakness”.
I could not help letting a tear drop down my cheeks, as I listened to her: and while I thank God for her and her family; I hope that you too will share the story with a friend to rekindle their hope.