Part 1
She was barely 2 years old when I saw something strange shining in my daughter’s left eye. I was heavily pregnant with our second child. My husband was away on a Rotary International exchange program. He had travelled for three months touring the USA. I was a young mother of only 28years then when all this trauma came knocking on my door.
At first I dismissed it thinking that it was nothing to worry about. Each time she was looking at the light I could see something shiny and reflecting from her left eye-on the pupil- more like one sees when a cat looks at a light.My husband being so far away meant I had no one to confide in. This was way before the era of cellphones. The Rotary exchange program which my husband had gone to attend in the USA was structured in such a way that would move from one host family to another as a guest. This meant waiting for his weekly regular calls from this end.
Eventually the much awaited call came through. But my husband dismissed my concerns as nothing to worry about and since it concerned the eyes, nothing could be done about it. There was also a general feeling or acceptance that anything in the eyes could not be serious. Maybe it could just be a squint eye or what is called “tsanga’ in Shona. This was based on our own experiences of our short lives. Never in our wildest dreams did we expect anything serious or traumatic. We had only been married for three years and she was our first born child.
The Union
It was on the 7 April 1985 that the young couple who had been in courtship for close to nine years tied the note at Nyazura Mission in Manicaland. Weddings then were pretty simple and an opportunity for the wider extended family to come witness the union of two people in love. This was five years after the independence of Zimbabwe when aspiring couples could have the luxury of having two wedding receptions. The ceremony and first reception were held at the bride’s home and the second reception at the groom’s. Generally, there was no much fuss about a lot of things like décor, catering, tents, chairs, etc. It was meant to be a big wedding party for the large extended family and a very proud moment for the parents of the young couple.
Pregnancy of our first child came soon after the wedding. This being our very first child, both my husband and I agreed that I follow a strict diet recommended for pregnant mothers. Like most young couples, this was carried out to the book- drinking milk, eating fish every week, fruits, vegetables, etc. This was a pregnancy which brought a lot of joy to the young couple.
Our daughter was born on Tuesday the 4th of February, 1986 at 10.55am after almost 12 hours of labour. Her birth brought a lot of joy and excitement to us as parents and the extended family since she was our very first child. She was a big bouncy baby weighing 3.86kgs and was the heaviest of all our three children. Her delivery was normal with no complications whatsoever. The most striking thing about our baby was her beautiful dark eyes. She had no hair for almost two years, to which my now late mother, with experience of having had 11 children, remarked that she would grow to have very long and beautiful hair.