MATERNAL HEALTHCARE: Let's join the First Lady in this campaign

(It's been about a month since I wrote this, some of you may have read it. But watching the news today, I felt compelled to have it posted here.)

 
It's that annoying buzz in the dead of the night, 2.47 for heaven's sake! And I don’t want to wake up. Then again, it's a call. Not an accidental alarm ring. Especially not from a secret crush "forbidden fruit" or an insomniac friend, but your step and you just have to pick the call.

So my senses straighten out. I remember last night's anxiety, I was so laden it was hard to breathe. My heart was beating hard and laboriously. Yes, beating like a Timbuktu drum, like it was misplaced and I wanted it to come to an end. But that's why it's called anxiety, kinda like an extremely crippling fear of the unknown.

In that short period, it feels like an eternity. The phone is still ringing. My head is still analyzing. Maybe it's news about grandma. Maybe she's, you know............... See, she suffered a stroke just a day ago and she's been aspirated. It's wrong to say she hasn't yet been able to open her eyes because everyone asks, "But she's blind? No?" And I am wondering, don't some blind people have eyes? Yeah, ignorance is bliss!

The phone is still ringing. I compose myself. Surely God will let me fulfill my promise. See, in our last conversation grandma prayed that I get a job soon and buy her a cardigan for my graduation. I had better get those CV's out before I run out of time!

The phone is still ringing. I pick up. My hand is shaking, I almost drop the phone (on the mattress, I’m in bed). My heart stops (this is just for dramatic effect), I can hear my labored breathing. There is pin drop silence........

Good news; my grandma is still alive and kicking (no pun intended, since she's immobile). And bad news. My neighbor just lost his wife in childbirth.

It's not happy news, trust me. Just because one life has been spared, doesn't make it any better. So when the first lady goes on a marathon to raise money for improved maternal care, shame on you and shut your pout if you think there's better things that a First Lady can do other than running to raise not just money but awareness on improving maternal care.

RIP Mama Kwamboka.