(written by )

. I know you are listening. I can’t stand the pain and disgrace any longer. My heart bleeds and feels like giving up. Heavenly father, I have knocked several times, but the door seemed not to open. I just lost my two children. I don’t want to live anymore. God, you either take my life or I do it myself. I sat under one of the fountain statues at the Kwame Nkrumah’s Mausoleum. My tears could no longer hold my pain. I had escaped the mob that run after me realizing I was the mother of the two murdered children. I didn’t even know why I had to run. I looked at myself and realized I was naked. I had only my underwear on. It was at that very moment I got to know the distance between normality and abnormality was a thin line. I had crossed that line. I sat down and quietly reminisced. How was it possible I had to go through so much of pain just to live? Any time I had felt there was light at the end of the tunnel darkness sets in. I had suffered multiple misfortunes right from birth to today.

. I found none. I felt my ever black world had finally ended. “Adobea now mad and naked on street.” O heavens! Why would life bring me this far to disgrace and abandon me? Just when I tried to pray for solutions I heard the horn of a bus. I turned and it was the School bus of Destiny Child Academy, Lapaz. The bus had Students of that school. They had come to visit the memorial grounds of the late Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The bus stopped right beside me and the Students and Teachers alighted. They suspiciously looked at me and their comments were the same: “wow this is a beautiful mad girl.” “Why should security allow this dirty thing to be here? She smells bad.” One after the other they all alighted from the bus. The driver then drove to a better place to park. A few miles away I realized someone had dropped a purse. I got closer and picked it up. I opened it and counted thirty – five of Fifty Ghana Cedi notes. In the purse was also a British Passport with the name Gladys Owusua Asare. I became so happy but confused. Was this the miracle I was waiting for or probably it was the temptation I had to forsake. I recounted the money to be sure my miracle does not fade. It was GH₵1,750. I knew this money wouldn’t last but at least it would be able to take me through for at least three months or more. I had plans of getting into a trade. I thought of selling sachet water on the streets. I hurriedly took the money out of the purse and left the rest of its contents in the purse on the ground. I now had money but I still had to go out naked pretending to be mad so I could fetch myself some clothes.

done the wrong thing by taking out the money from the purse and not looking for the owner. I became more confused. Giving this money out to the owner meant dying in stupidity. I went back for the purse, placed the money back and voyaged internally to look for the owner. It was simple but difficult. Simple because I only had to look for the School; difficult because I had to look for the School in my nudity. I had no other option but to still look for the School. I managed to get close to them but no one even noticed the presence of a mad girl. I felt sad. Closer, I saw the students were been searched for a missing item. I carefully searched for the owner among them since I had seen the picture in the passport. Unfortunately, the owner wasn’t part. I took in a deep sigh and said to myself, my miracle had now been cemented. Just when I was about to leave, I spotted an old woman believed to be in her mid-seventies. She was far away from the students. She looked very worried. She had a little boy that looked like the grandson. I got closer to her. I thought the boy would run away but rather asked the grandmother if she could spare me some food. The old woman in her troubled mood gave the boy a loaf of bread and a bottled water to be given to me. I thanked her. She looked at me, smiled and asked whether I needed a cloth. I nodded. She took off the cloth around her waist and handed it over to me. I remained speechless. The little boy asked whether I needed more bread. The grandmother gave another loaf of bread to the boy and said: Gerald, kindly give it to Auntie. The level of such kindness was rare. I asked the old woman why she was worried. She looked at me and smiled. She later realized the question came from the mad girl. She was surprised I could speak good English. She confessed she thought I was mentally unfit. I narrated the latter part my story to her. I worsened her woes and left her in tears. She hugged me and asked me to sit down.

. She had just returned from the United Kingdom with the daughter and the grandson. Her daughter and the grandson had to leave back to the United Kingdom the following day. She decided to spend some time with grandson at the park. According to her, she mistakenly took the daughter’s purse. That purse had the daughter’s passport. Unfortunately, the purse got missing at park…