02/08/2025
“I vaccinated her child, treated his asthma, bought him toys... never knowing I was mothering my husband’s son.”
I am a nurse. I take care of lives.
I never imagined one of those lives would quietly be destroying mine.
The first time I met Naledi, she was sobbing in the emergency room with her 2-year-old son. The little boy was wheezing badly. I rushed oxygen to him and stayed by her side for hours.
After that day, she became a regular. Her son had asthma, and I was the senior nurse in paediatrics. I’d book them early, pull strings to get her prescriptions faster, and once, even used my own salary to buy the boy a new inhaler when hers got stolen.
I bonded with him. I even told my husband,“That boy could be ours. He’s so sweet, so polite.”
He smiled. Nothing more.
Until one Sunday morning, three years later, Naledi fainted outside the clinic.
We brought her in, and I stayed after my shift to sit with her.
She turned to me and whispered,
"Sister... I want to confess something before I die. That boy... he’s your husband’s child. I didn’t know he was married then. He left me when I got pregnant."
my breath stopped.
I thought of the boy's smile. How he looked at me. How I loved him like my own.
And my husband?
When I confronted him, he said it happened 8 years ago. Before he “found himself.” But we’ve only been married for 5.
So much for finding yourself.
Now, I live in the same home as a man who gave me no child, yet hid his own from me.
And the little boy still visits the clinic.
He hugs me. He calls me Sister.
And I cry in the storeroom every time he leaves.
How do I keep showing up with compassion… for a child that reminds me of my husband’s betrayal?
If betrāyal ever wore a smile in your life, comment 🥀
Should she forgive the man? Or walk away for her own healing?
Your words might be the strength she needs today.
Tag someone who has loved even in pain.
