Re: Too late to apologise

I read how a lady returned home late one night and her husband asked her where she was coming from at so late a time. She told him that he would not believe what happened that day, and that she was very weak to speak at that time. “Oh! God, I’m very tired,” she cried, yawning. In a reckless manner, Uncle told her that she was vomiting rubbish, while evading his question. He said that she was pretending as if she did not know that there was no food in their house.

Apologizing, she pleaded that he should listen to her first, but Uncle was not in that mood. He slapped her brutally before she finished what she was saying and she fell down. He was not scared, but was shouting that she should cook his dinner, before explaining why she switched off her phone. Noticing that she was not responding to his words or beating, it infuriated him the more. He rushed to beat the hell out of her, and noticed what he did not expect: she had passed out!

He was shocked and started panicking. Confusion had set in, even in getting his car key. In great pain, he put her inside his car. To the hospital! There, his wife was taken to the Emergency ward. When he enquired about her, the Medical Doctor told him how she brought his mum for treatment some hours ago before going home. “Your mum would have been dead, if your wife had delayed a minute. She made frank effort to contact you concerning your mum’s fate, but her phone battery was flat,” the doctor informed him.

Not even minding the medical situation of his mum, he asked the Medical Doctor whether his wife was okay, and was told rather that his mum was in the ward. Gripping the Doctor’s shirt, in great anxiety, he asked him the fate of his wife. “I am sorry, Mr. Collins, your wife couldn’t make it,” he told him.  Hot tears soaked his eyes as he groaned in deep pain. “Noooooooo,” he shouted in agony, but no matter what he did or did not do, it was too late to correct his mistake.

There are things we might have done and at the end, our actions and inactions to reverse them will not be possible. Mr. Collins had killed his wife and he cannot bring her back to life, and anything he does now is immaterial. His pain is his reward for impatience. He should have listened to his wife. If a man cannot listen to his wife, who will he listen to? I respect Judges, for no matter how wicked someone is in murdering scores of human beings, they still listen to him in the Court, giving him ample opportunity to defend himself. Uncle did not. He murdered his wife, not knowing that her lateness was for his good, as she was taking good care of his sick mother. It is now too late for him to regret his conduct. 

The situation would have been different if he had listened to his fatigued wife. He did not, that was why he is now a murderer and might embrace the hangman’s noose. His wife died because of her deep love and concern for his mum. Aunty did what some wives might not have done, by tasking herself beyond measure, to save his mum from death. That, she did, by rushing her to the hospital. She was so exhausted and in great grief about her, that she could not share her painful experience immediately with her husband. One wonders if he would have done the same for Aunty’s mum!

He complained that his wife’s phone was switched off when he called her, and for sure, he might have imagined the worst. What else than that she was lying on the bosom of a man, which he might do! God has a way of revealing the truth, as He did in this case, through the Medical Doctor. In answering about his wife, he told him how his wife had tried to contact him, but for her phone that was flat. He realized his error in suspecting an innocent lady, but it was too late!

When Ify and I were engaged in marriage, after expecting my reply to her mail and she did not receive it, she wrote another one asking whether I had withdrawn from my marriage proposal. “If you write and you have not received my reply, you should blame the Post office, not me,” I wrote to her. The implication was for her to presume that I must have replied. Patience! The case was different from that of a Christian sister I was relating with, when I was a student, and who played an important role in my Christian life.

During my Vacation Job at Aba, she invited me to their Scripture Union Fellowship in her college. I went and we had a warm fellowship. She visited me to collect the money she had requested from me. When she was going back, she invited me to her school Fellowship meeting the next Sunday. I did not say anything and I did not go.

     She wrote me when I went back to school, asking why I did not honour her invitation. I was surprised that she did not enquire about my welfare and my school result. I did not reply her. She wrote another one, asking why I did not reply her letter. I ignored her request and wrote her a normal letter. She replied, demanding explanations why I did not reply her first letter. I replied without referring to it. For her next letter, I told her that a letter might not be replied if the person is sick or dead and that patience was therefore required.

I told her that I was surprised that she wrote me a letter, without enquiring about my welfare and my Sessional result. I told her the pains I was passing through when I received her first letter. “I stayed behind to work when school reopened so that they would pay me a full month’s salary. When I came back to school, I received her letter when I was struggling to regain my accommodation, a Final Year student! Thank God that I succeeded,” I replied. It ended our cold war.

We need patience in our dealings with people. That sister might have thought that I ignored her letter because another sister might have started relating with me, not knowing what I was going through, with regard to hostel accommodation. Impatience! She should not have forgotten that all the years we were relating, that I had never shaken her hands.

God is not interested in our intended action but in what we did. What Uncle did was that he has killed his wife. Impatience! The Lord Jesus humbled Himself by leaving Heaven and was born in this earth by a human being He created. When King Herod wanted to murder Him, out of envy, the angel of God told Joseph, His foster father, to escape to Egypt with the child and mum. He did. He was there until the death of Herod. Patience! Jesus knew what to do, when He grew up, but did not do it until He was 30 years. Patience! Uncle is now a murderer because of impatience!

For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi:  0817 223 7012; [email protected]