#5DaysToVals Contest Entry – Submitted by Niyi Adekanmbi

Hello Enitan,

I hope you make it eventually. I pray this sacrifice will suffice. I would do anything to make sure it does.

I met you last week. It was your weeping father I noticed initially. I wondered what made him shed fresh tears every time I walked past him in the corridor. Strangely, I noticed he wiped his face and put on his best smile anytime he had to enter your room.

Then I spoke with the doctor. He told me your name, Enitan. That you needed a kidney transplant as soon as possible. He said your mother died when you were only a child and your father was not a match. It broke me when he told me you are all he had left. The search for a donor had obviously drained him.

Doctor wouldn’t say more, so I asked around and I discovered how your terminal situation had first killed your father’s thriving cement business. How he had spent his last kobo on you. How he slept in your ward every night and when he couldn’t sleep, he walked up and down the hospital corridor apparently praying for a miracle.

Then I asked to see you. The moment I saw you, I knew it. I understood the connection I had with your father all along. Without any inkling of doubt I asked the doctor to check if my kidney matched. He did and we matched. But then, my wife’s death two years ago had given me the liberty to control my own diet. I totally abandoned the diet schedule doctor had advised when I was diagnosed of diabetes years back. Now I am obese and my blood pressure is slightly above normal.

It didn’t shock me when the doctor stated that one of my kidneys is in a poor condition. Consequence of my careless lifestyle.

However, I decided to give the good one to you. I decided to take the risk because I love you. I love you because I knew your mother. Years ago, I jilted her because the lady I eventually married -my parents’ choice- got pregnant. I loved your mother but my parents wanted a grandchild. I had preferred your mother but I had to go with the woman who got pregnant first.

She left the country afterwards and I never heard from her again. I have always wondered why thoughts of her haunted me these many years. Till her saw you I didn’t know what to make of the note she left me with. The small note attached to this letter. I wondered what she meant with that closing paragraph. “One day you will realise how much of you I have with me. I swore never to let you go. I won’t.” Now I know.

You are my daughter. At least in a sense.

Eni-itan, -a person with a history- (your name gives a lot away too), I hope my sacrifice is enough.

Take care of your father. He had given everything until I stepped in. Maybe I’m the miracle he prayed for. Your step-siblings would definitely reach out. They understand already. I hoped we all would spend time together. But the chance…dangerously very slim.

With love,

Wale Ade-Olu.