#Truths_of_the_heart
43
Lwipa woke up at 5am every day. He started his day with exercise, jogging being his preference. At 6 he would be back home to shower and prepare for work. Lwipa stretched as he got out of be-d, and went straight to use the toilet. As he stood at th sink to brush his teeth, he saw Wezi in the bathtub asleep. Lwipa did not bother to wake her. He proceeded out for his jog.
At 6:05 Lwipa arrived back from his jog. He stretched for another 5 minutes in the front yard, then went inside to start preparing for work. Lwipa was expecting to find Wezi in the kitchen as he always did preparing his breakfast or cleaning his shoes but she wasn’t there. Back in the be-droom, everything was just as he had left it. He sighed, as his temper began to rise. Lwipa stormed into the bathroom where he found Wezi still in the bathtub.
“Enough of your tantrum!” He roared at the door. “Get out and get my breakfast re-ady. Plus I nee-d to bath!”
Wezi made no movement. This angered Lwipa even more.
“Wezi, if i have to get you out of that tub it won’t end well for you.” He walked up to the tub to shake her. The minute be t©uçhed her b©dy, Lwipa jumped back in fear. Her b©dy felt cold to his t©uçh.
“Wezi?” He called, cautiously. Lwipa tried to wake her, being gentle this time around. He lifted her hand but it fell back. Fear creeping in, Lwipa felt the side of her n£¢k for a pulse. It was pres£nt but very faint.
“Wezi? Wezi? Wezi? Wake up. plea-se! Wezi!” Lwipa shook her vigorously. “Wezi wake up plea-se.” He shouted in her ear, hoping it would jo-lt her back but nothing worked. Panicked, he lifted her from the tub. Wezi was we-t. A pungent of urine filled his nostrils. Lwipa carried her out of the be-droom, and almost bu-mped into his mother.
“What happened? Why where you shouting?” Cathy asked, ru-bbing her eyes.
“Wezi! She’s cold. Not waking. Called name. Wezi.” Lwipa was unable to speak comprehensively. Cathy looked at Wezi’s lifeless b©dy in his arms.
“Did you hit her?” She asked fearfully.
“No mum. I found her like this. quic-k, help me to the car.”
Lwipa rushed Wezi to UTH. Upon entering the gate, he started hooting hoping to get the staff’s attention. A guard walked out of casualty clearly disapproving of his actions.
“Hey, this is a hospital. You don’t come in hooting and ma-king noise.” He scolded.
“plea-se, it’s my wife. She’s dying. plea-se.” Lwipa jumped out of the car without turning off the engine. He lifted Wezi and pushed throu-gh the door. The guard pointed him in the direction to take her. A nurse rushed to Lwipa, showing him where to place her.
“What happened?” The nurse asked.
“I don’t know. I found her like this. I tried to wake her up but.” He held the t©p of his head with both hands.
“Does she have any un-derlying health problems? BP? Sugar? Asthma? Heart disease?”
Lwipa shook his head. “No. Nothing.”
“Is she allergic to anything?”
Lwipa shook his head again.
A young doctor joined them soon after. The nurse was explaining something but Lwipa didn’t hear a word being spoken. He looked at Wezi, scared that she would die. Lwipa watched as the doctor and nurse struggled to put an IV line on Wezi. Another nurse c@m£ wheeling a machine he had only ever seen on TV. An oxygen mask was placed on her face as the doctor begun to press her che-st with his hands. The doctor moved momentarily to allow the new nurse to place what looked like paddles from the TV machine onto Wezi’s che-st. This cycle went on for what seemed like an eternity to Lwipa.
“She has a rhythm.” The doctor announced as relief registered on all their faces. The doctor when on to order a lot of tests that Lwipa couldn’t un-derstand.
“Alo. Boss. You nee-d to move your car. That place is for ambulance.” The guard Lwipa had found at the entrance told him. Reluctantly, Lwipa went out to his car. When he returned, he found Wezi had been moved to a be-d near the nurses station.
An older man approached Lwipa. “Sir, you nee-d to fill out a form for the patients registration and make a payment at the reception.”
Lwipa made the payment and completed the registration as quic-kly as her could and went back to Wezi’s side. He found a different doctor re-ading her file then proceed to examine her.
“Doc, what’s wrong with my wife?”
“At the moment we can’t really say. It could be a number of things that could have gone wrong. We’ve ruled out diabetes. Her sugar levels were low but not enough for us to suspect hypoglycemia. We will know more once the lab work is done. As well as an ECG to rule out a heart attack.” The doctor placed the file down on the side table. “Is there anything that you might have observed during the course of yesterday and night that was different about her? Anything she complained about? Headache? Abdominal pain? Dizziness? Anything?”
“No!” Lwipa shook his head. “She was a little upset but didn’t complain about feeling sick.”
“May I ask what she was upset about?”
Lwipa pas-sed his hand over his head. “Eh, just the normal martial squabbles.”
The doctor noted a hesitation in Lwipa to respond. He s-en-sed that whatever issues Lwipa had with his wife must have caused Wezi alot of stress. “Has your wife ever talked or tired to kill herself?”
The question shocked Lwipa. “Wezi? No. Never!”
“Ok. Your wife is still unstable. We will therefore monitor her vitals and condition every 30 minutes. I’m hoping by the next as-sessment some if the lab results will be re-ady. In the mean time, if you remember anything let u know immediately.”
Lwipa remained pondering on the doctor’s questions. Could Wezi have tried to kill herself? She was always so resilient, taking everything in stride. Lwipa fumbled for his phone which was still stra-pped on his upper arm in the workout pouch he used during his jogging.
“Hi, mum. plea-se check my be-droom for any medicine that Wezi could have drun!k. The doctor thinks she might have tried to kill herself.”
Cathy laughed after Lwipa hung up. ‘What a desperate attempt to try and get Lwipa’s attention’ she thought. ‘As if killing herself will magically make her pregnant.’
Cathy did not have to search for long. He found the empty medicine pack on the bathroom floor. She took a picture of it and s£nt it to Lwipa, who in turn showed it to the doctor.
“That’s Diazepam. Do you have any idea how many tablets there might have been?” The doctor asked.
“No. I didn’t even know she had those tablets in the house.”
The doctor made a fresh set of orders as the staff rushed around Wezi trying to save her life. Lwipa never left her sight, not even to use the toilet.
A little after 12, Wezi seemed to have made drastic improvement in her condition. She opened her eyes for the first time since finding her in the bathtub.
“Wezi? Oh God Wezi!” Lwipa sounded relieved.
Wezi looked at and smiled. Suddenly, her eyes rolled back and she started seizing.
“NURSE! DOCTOR! HELP!” Lwipa hvgged Wezi, trying to hold her in place. Help arrived immediately.
“She’s st©pped breathing.” One nurse said immediately beginning che-st compressions. Lwipa was pu-ll-ed aside to allow the nurses and doctors to work on Wezi.
“Time of death 12:32.”
“What? Who said that?” Lwipa pushed throu-gh to Wezi who’s face was being covered with a be-dsheet. “Who said that?”
“I’m sorry sir,but we did all we could for her. Unfortunately without knowing how much diazepam she took and when she took it made it difficult for us to effectively help her. I’m sorry for your loss.” The doctor patted Lwipa on the shoulder then left to attend to another critical patient.
“Wezi? Wake up!” Lwipa tried to shake her.
The nurse gave him minute to talk to her before covering her b©dy and asking the porters to move her from the ward
#Truths_of_the_heart
44
There was a deafening silence at the graveyard as Wezi’s casket was lowered into the grave. Her mother held on to her only surviving child, Wezi’s twin Nyembezi, both still in a s-en-se of shock. Lwipa sat on the other end of the tent next to Cathy. A few relatives from both families surrounded the two pairs of mother and son, offering an occasional word of comfort.
The casket reached its depth. The lowering poles where re-moved as the preacher stood over the grave. Saying a prayer in the microphone help for him, he blessed Wezi, wishing her the Lord’s forgiveness and Mercy. He had ba-rely said Amen, as the grave diggers begun to cover the coffin with dirt.
“Wezi!” Nyembezi stood up, unable to hold his grief inside any longer. “You have ended my life Wezi. How could you do this to me? Why didnt you come to me? Why didnt you take me with you?” He started to walk towards the grave but one of his uncles held him back. “Uncle Chawela let me go. She is alone. I cant let her be alone.”
Wezi’s mother wept quietly, her hand grasping her che-st. If anyone had told her she would be burying her daughter today she would have laughed in their faces. She was still trying to un-derstand how Wezi could have taken her own life. It all felt surreal.
The grave was finally covered. One of Wezi’s uncles stood in front, re-ading out her life history. You can re-ad more of these story from unlimited story platform, sweet and nice story room throu-gh ome on+2335. “Wezi born in 1987 as a twin to her parents Chitufya and Misozi Chilatu. Her primary school was Kalingalinga and secondary at Munali girls. She was married until her death and survived by her husband and mother and brother and younger brother. Rest in peace my child.”
Mwamba winced at how short Wezi’s life was summarized. There was more to her life than what was re-ad out. Despite only knowing her a short well, he felt he could have told it better. Peter moved closer to Mwamba, having insisted that they attend her funeral. Peter had wept bitterly after being told she had died.
Two women sitting on an old grave in front of Mwamba and Peter begun to laugh after the eulogy was re-ad. “Iye, no wonder she killed herself. That’s the problem when you depend on a man for everything.” One said. “Eh, killing herself over a man? Ha! Those are jokes. Foolishness infact.”
“I heard ati the husband made another girl pregnant.” The women clasped their hand giggling. “As if he’s the first man to do so. Ata! This thing of trying to get attention now look at her. Dead, leaving the man to enjoy the ka side hen.”
“Excuse me! If you have nothing good to say about the deceased then you better leave! How dare you laugh without knowing the struggles she faced.” Mwamba scolded the women, who just laughed at him in retaliation and moved to sit on a different grave.
The preacher gave a closing prayer, then people began to leave. Peter looked at the grave in horror, noting its lack of wreaths.
“Dad, we haven’t put flowers yet. Why is everyone leaving?”
Mwamba shook his head sadly. “Flowers are not put on the grave of a person who killed themselves.”
“Why? But didnt they love her?”
“She was loved. But its considered a sin to take your own life so they do not put anything.” Mwamba tried to explain.
“I want to put some for her. plea-se dad? She was a good person. I want her to have something beautiful.”
Mwamba was t©uçhed by Peter gesture. If only the world shared his innocence. The two waited until everyone had left the grave site. Mwamba bought a bucket of different colored roses. Him and Peter carefully placed the roses on Wezi’s grave.
“Thank you dad.” Peter smiled as they walked to their car.
Tbc