Forgetting Dad
Written by Sonia Okehie
Episode 9
Every profession have obligatory duties that ought not to be violated no matter what. As a medical doctor, it was Vera’s obligation to treat her unconscious pedophile father at the emergency ward whether she liked him or not. On a fair note, Vera shouldn’t be blamed for taking such drastic decision because she probably wasn’t in her right frame of mind at that moment; not after the sudden trip down memory lane. There were so many things going on in Vera’s mind at that moment and the most intense of all was ‘Revenge’.
On seeing that the decision was beginning to cause confusion, Vera angrily walked out on the nurse that kept inquiring why she didn’t want to treat the patient which was even her own father. With Vera gone, another doctor who was on duty immediately filled in the gap and started administering treatments to the unconscious patient.
Fortunately, they were able to stabilize Mr Jones as his body started responding to treatments. Shortly afterwards, Vera was called upon by her seniors to account for her unprofessional behaviour concerning a patient’s life. The hospital management took the matter quite serious but Vera was able to convince them into believing that her reasons for refusing to treat her father was due to some unresolved family issues that hunted her the moment she set her eyes on him. Her reasons were quite convincing and the board pardoned her for such unprofessional behaviour.
In order to prevent the situation from reoccurring, Vera was moved to another unit where she would’ve have any contact at all with her dad. The new measures that were put in place made Vera extremely happy because she honestly didn’t want to touch her father nor have anything to do with him. She avoided the ward he was admitted in and didn’t come one bit close.
After work that day, Dennis came around to pick Vera at the hospital she worked at. He knew the time she was going to be off duty so he rounded up earlier so as to meet up with her. When Dennis arrived, the first thing he noticed was the sadness on Vera’s face and her moody attitude. He immediately tried to inquire what the problem was but she wasn’t willing to talk about it yet.
They made a stop at an eatery to get lunch before finally heading to Dennis house. All through the ride, Vera faced the window and didn’t bother to look towards Dennis direction. He was calm about the whole awkwardness and wanted her to cool off before inquiring what the problem was. When they finally arrived their destination and settled in, a conversation started.
“What’s the problem? Why are you so moody?” Dennis curiously asked, “Nothing much, it’s just that something happened back at the hospital today” Vera soberly replied, “What happened?” He continued and she narrated the incident that happened with her dad.
When Vera was done talking, Dennis wasn’t in support of her attitude and didn’t hesitate to let her know. “You shouldn’t have walked away as you did because at that point, he wasn’t just your father but a dying helpless patient that needed urgent medical help. That wasn’t the best revenge because two wrongs will never make a right. Ok, imagine he had died from that incident, will you truly be happy? I don’t think so. I know this man hurt you but you are actually hurting yourself now by holding all these grudges. It was all in the past and it’s over, so stop carrying the baggage along with you every time. Your father is already having his own share of Karma, don’t help God to do his revenge work. I’m not saying you should forgive your dad and start pretending like one happy family afterwards, all I am saying is that you need to offload this baggage and if a one-on-one confrontation with him will help, then go for it and see where things goes afterwards” Dennis said.
There and then, Vera was smitten by the level of truth and wisdom that came out of Dennis mouth. Deep down, she knew that she had taken things to the extreme by neglecting a dying patient and looking unprofessional to her seniors and the hospital management. It actually dawned on her how self fulfilling she was and it suddenly melted her heart. Shortly afterwards, her countenance changed for the better but she still felt burdened within.
Everything Dennis advised and said to Vera that day was a turning point to getting the freedom she had always sought for. The following day at work, she deliberately passed through the ward her dad was admitted in just to see if she will catch a glimpse of him. Immediately her eyes caught sight of her dad, her heart dropped out of pity but there was still a significant amount of Rage burning within.
After Vera had settled down that day at work, she couldn’t concentrate afterwards. At first she felt it was just her mind playing games with her but later realised that it was beyond her. Unable to figure out what to do, she called her mum to inform her on everything that was going on at the hospital.
“Hello mum, how are you?” Vera soberly asked, “I’m fine my daughter and you?” Her mum inquired, “No mum, I’m not” she bluntly said. Immediately Vera said that, her mum became concerned to know what the problem was. “What’s the problem? What is bothering you my child?” Her mum asked and she narrated everything to her. “What! You mean Jones is at the hospital?” Her mum curiously inquired and Vera told her he was.
After the outburst of emotions, Vera’s mum began to talk; “My child I know how you feel for refusing to treat your father but I want to also let you know that it isn’t your fault that he is now paying for his atrocities. His evil deeds is catching up with him for every evil thing he did in the past. However, it was my decision to divorce him and not yours, so you have to decide for yourself how you want to handle this matter. If you truly want to have that one-on-one talk with him to free your mind once and for all, then do so my child. You are not the cause of Jones misery, he brought all this upon himself. Your happiness is all I care about and if talking to him will ease some tension, so be it” her mum said.
With those word of advice from Vera’s mum, her mind was finally made up to have that dreaded talk with her father. After talking on phone with her mum, she took a deep breath and headed towards the ward Mr Jones was admitted. When she arrived, it was quite unfortunate that he was still unconscious. Unable to be discouraged, she sat closely opposite to him and just kept staring. After staring for a while, she broke the silence.
“You could have been the best father to me but you chose to be a nightmare. I was so innocent but you vi0lated me and ripped me off every ownership of my body and dignity. Why did you do all that dad? Imagine I didn’t have Dennis, how bad my life could have turned out just because you couldn’t control yourself. I was a kid for crying out loud, but you chose my fragile undeveloped body over a thousand better choices you could have had. I can’t say I forgive you because I will be lying to myself if I did but I have decided to let you go from my life. I let you go for every thing you ever did to me. I will deliberately work on erasing the hunting memories you have left me with. I deserve to be totally happy; free from every kind of hold you have on me. I don’t want you in my life but I pray you find peace within yourself because I no longer carry you in my spirit. Live the remaining years of your life right and mend your ways, maybe, just maybe you will truly be able to forgive yourself. I still love you even though I hate the fact that I do, wake up soon” Vera soberly said.
Just as Vera was able to walk away, she felt a hold on her hand and turned immediately to see what was going on. Before she could wrap her head around the fact that her dad was now conscious, he tiredly looked at her and said “Thank you”.
Confused and curious, Vera asked; “Did you hear all I said?”, Mr Jones took a deep breath with tears in his eyes and nodded ‘Yes’.
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