Dead on Arrival

We share this is a very touching, true life story about the great expectations and travails of love from abroad to the home country. Read on:

(We have changed the characters, out of respect for the grieved and dead person.) This is a tear jerker, but you decide:

“Jebose, in life’s drama, there are no rehearsals. The realities of living, loving and existing just hit me. I am navigating through a hectic and wicked Lagos traffic, laced with confusion, arrogance, stubbornness of road users and abusers.

“I am on my way to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, to take delivery of the corpse of my dead “lover and future husband”. His body is arriving unaccompanied from Atlanta Georgia. He promised to marry me: It was the only promise I believed from the sea of hunters of my love and marriage proposals which came these few years.

“I am in my early forties. After this heartbreak, I may not know how to find my life again. I am afraid of this thing called love. My heart is shattered. My hopes dimmed by this sad and horrible loss of a perfect gentleman. I am a successful trader of all things fashion and golden in the bustling downtown Balogun market located in the deep soul of this city. I had been through promises of marriages and love. I fell severally in love.“Love” brutalised me. My heart was red by deceits, pains and hurts from past lovers and acquaintances. My dear, I had seen the worse of men and the best of love that I thought was forever mine. If this world was mine, I would poison all those men that walked my way with bouquets of flowers and sprouted it with fountains of lies: these men shattered my heart foundation. I said goodbye to love and loving, wanted to live a normal lonely life the rest of my days on earth until I met Adewale through a popular social medium.

“My daughter presented me with a laptop as a birthday gift. She signed me onto one of the social media raving through this planet earth. She also gave me lessons 101 on available match making sites for single men and women forties and over. I initially resisted these lessons. But she persisted I tried one of the sites whenever I returned from the hectic Lagos trading. My laptop and one of the sites became an elixir to the frustrations of dealings with irrational and unreasonable customers in the city.

“Few days after I signed up to this site, I got a friendship request from a dear gentleman. I accepted his request, he sent a chat and introduced himself as Adewale. I ignored his flirtations until that Sunday morning. I left my laptop on. He sent an Instant message, wishing to chat with me. My daughter was browsing with my laptop when his request came. She called my attention to the Instant message and said I should respond. I told her that I probably knew who was chatting then. I also told my daughter not to bother because Adewale was just a playboy and always trying to flirt with me. ‘Don’t mind that loser, o jare’ I reluctantly dismissed her and the pop up chat. ‘Haba mum, just come and chat with him now…please… have a conversation…don’t dismiss him as a loser. ‘Mother, some of the persons on this site are really serious men and women. His picture shows a serious mature man. He may be the one, give him a chance,’ she pleaded with me.

“From that moment, I began to chat with Adewale, daily. We would chat from midnight to early morning, talked about us. The more we chatted, the deeper and more curious I got. Suddenly, I felt the need for a man in my life. I began to like him dearly. He was charming, interesting and fun to chat with. He made me laugh and cry. He would tell me sweet things I needed to hear. He was concerned about my business. I couldn’t wait for the end of my day to share my day’s business musings with him. He restored my feelings and hopes. He made me believe in love again. He would encourage me in my business, suggest improvement ideas and promised to provide me with love, comfort and security whenever we met. I began to be consumed by his daily chats, text messages and telephone conversations. We fell in long distance love. He decorated my life with his words and empowerment. I became possessed by his image and voice on the electronic gadgets that kept this love burning. I desired him. God, where was he through those years? He lived the past 28 years in the United States. He was married to a beautiful Nigerian medical doctor. The marriage lasted 18 years before they parted ways. Adewale was a biochemist, working for the United States Centre for Disease Control.

“After his marriage ended in a bitter divorce, he became tired of living in America. He wanted to start his life anew. His work schedules that consisted of regular travels didn’t allow him to network and meet people in ordinary social settings. So he signed onto this matchmaking social medium where we met. He promised to visit home and meet me the first time three months after we met online.

“The beginning of this week, he called and pleaded I pick him at the airport this afternoon. We had arranged our first meet. He said he could not wait to hug and kiss me. I told him I was craving his wholeness.

“My body was lotion with passion and ecstasy waiting affectionately for him to arrive. I was hungry for him, thirsty for his kisses and wanting his body. I could not wait these hours for my majesty. We spoke at the Atlanta Airport as he waited to board his night flight to Nigeria. I was excited and filled with anticipation of seeing the man that rekindled these feelings for me. I just couldn’t go to bed that night. It was 3.15 a.m here and we spoke as he boarded the plane. ‘Baby, I can’t wait to be with you’. I responded ‘Otunba, your precious price is waiting for you. Have a safe flight and tell the pilot to fly faster because I just can’t go to sleep, I’m waiting for you dear’. ‘I will touch the sky as I fly, all for you my dear. I hope I would be able to spell your name in the bright and clear immaculate clouds…see you in 11 hours. I must hang up now… I love you, my dear angel.’ These were the last words and goodbye from him.

“Six hours into the flight, I got a call from one of the airline’s cabin crew members. She asked if I knew Mr. Adewale Bashiru, a passenger flying with the airline from Atlanta to Lagos. I excitedly said yes and asked if the flight was on time. She said yes. I told her he was coming home to marry me. She paused briefly and in a sad voice said that she was sorry to inform me that Adewale died an hour before the call. He had a sudden massive heart attack, collapsed and died. There was no doctor on board the flight. Adewale   had no immediate family member contact on the flight file. She found my phone number on his cell phone. He had programmed my name as his “wife”. The cabin crew extended the airline’s sympathy to this unfortunate sad end. She pleaded with me to meet the airline management at the airport to transfer his corpse to me since I had been listed on his cell phone as his wife. I don’t know what to think or say. I am still in shock as I narrate this to you.

“We shared dreams. We shared life together through the phones and text messages. He was coming home to meet me for the first time. I don’t know how to mourn this stranger that I loved. But I will love him eternally. I will ask my friends and family to help me appreciate, celebrate and bury this love. You may say he wasn’t mine to have. I may never know. But I feel his voice and words calming my soul and inspiring me to be the best in whatever I decided with my life. I am now at the airport, waiting for the corpse of a man I never met, yet love truly and sincerely. He impacted my world and life the way no man ever did.”

Culled from the Punch newspapers.