- ‘Our sad moments, ugly experiences’
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
In a world where persons with disabilities quickly take to begging for alms to survive, a physically challenged couple, Kehinde and Ramota Ogunsanya has said the thought of begging had never crossed their minds.
Kehinde and Ramota, who are middle-aged, had been struck with disabilities before they got married in 2012.
At their residence located in Ikorodu, Lagos State, the couple recounted how they had become the cynosure of eyes whenever they walked together on the streets as people wondered about their disabilities and union.
While Kehinde lost his left arm while trying to save a baby from falling off a bus during an accident, Ramota’s left leg was amputated after a car crushed her from behind while hawking.
The PWDs had not known themselves when their separate accidents befell them.
Owing to their resolve to keep dreaming and not to give up on life, they took to sporting activities as handicapped athletes. This was what brought them together before they saw themselves and fell in love with each other 11 years ago.
They disclosed that many people were usually surprised whenever they saw them being happy while others became envious of their public show of affection.
Ramota explained how she started using crutches to walk, saying, “This is not how I was given birth to. I was hawking for my mother with my brother before a vehicle came behind me and knocked me from the back. I learnt that the young driver had gone to take the car from their compound without knowing that its brake had failed. They took me to the hospital but I was rejected. I was rushed to the National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos where I was admitted.
“In the long run, the doctor said they would cut my leg because my situation was already getting worse. The accident affected the vein on my left leg. My mother cried, she never wanted my leg to be amputated but after she also saw my situation, she allowed it. That was how I started using crutches to support my other leg.”
On how she met Kehinde, the mother of three said, “I used to do sports before and we met during one of my exercises at a stadium. My husband is an athlete and I am into wheel chair race. He told me he loved me and proposed marriage to me. I accepted and we got married. After some months, we couldn’t only rely on sports since we started having children. We had to pay rent and pay school fees. So, we needed to get other means of income. My husband is a bus conductor and I sell clothes.
“When I told my parents that he wanted to marry me, they were surprised because they wondered how two physically challenged persons would cope in marriage. In fact, some people always ask me if we were in the same vehicle when I had an accident or if we swore an oath to each other to marry ourselves before the accident. They were always surprised to see us happy together as a couple. Many of them couldn’t believe it whenever I told them that we had our disabilities before we met.”
Speaking on her challenges, Ramota said she often slipped while rushing to the market around 3:00am in Ikorodu during week days.
“My challenges are that whenever I wake up to go to the market in the middle of the night, around 3:00am so that I can beat the traffic, my walking sticks usually slip and I do fall severally,” she disclosed.
Ramota said the saddest day of her life since her leg was amputated was when a lady on social media commented harshly on a video she posted where she was joyously dancing with her husband.
“I wept when a lady insulted me on social media while dancing with my husband in a video I posted. I couldn’t let go of the insult. The lady wondered what was making us happy that warranted our dance. It was really a difficult moment for me and I regard that as the saddest moment of my life,” she said.
Kehinde also gave accounts of how he lost his arm and had never given up on life.
He said, “I was coming from Lagos in a bus. I was the conductor and suddenly, the tyre burst on motion and in a bid to save a baby passenger from falling off the vehicle, I fell and my left arm dropped immediately. After some years, I met my wife through one of my friends and I got her phone number and from there, we started talking till we got married.”
“I usually face challenges at work. The driver of the bus I conduct sometimes insults me and complains of the way I work but because I have nowhere to go, I have to stomach the insults and continue working in order to continue to feed my family. We can’t beg because we lost our limbs,” Kehinde declared.
