Stories from Our Reality: A Sudanese Widow's Blues

Last year, I had written a series of short stories, inspired from reality, which were published by a local newspaper. I came across them recently, and thought of sharing them on my blog. Here is one of them.

Stories from Our Reality
A Sudanese Widow's Blues

On her wedding day, Randa looked ravishing- she was a bride so beautiful people would stare and comment. Hussein could not keep his eyes off her, and she kept looking away in bashfulness. She whispered in his ear, “you’re staring, stop doing that it’s making me nervous,” and he just smiled at her, slyly. He knew right from beginning, he knew when he first saw her that she was the one for him.

Just weeks into their marriage, Randa and Hussein were living as one blissful newly wed couple. They spent every moment together, and could not stand even the thought of being apart. They enjoyed facing life together, and they were a mere example of an idyllic couple. Life was beautiful, and this marital union was heavenly.

As the months passed by, Randa and Hussein’s relationship grew stronger. They were deeply in love and intensely adored one another. There was no force in the universe that was going to break them apart; their bond was stronger than any force...
Or so they thought.

Eight months later, Hussein passed away after suffering from terminal cancer. He departed this life at the peak of his youth and left his beautiful young bride without a husband.

Hussein had indicators of cancer two years prior to his diagnosis, but he never told a soul. Only until his last days on earth and long after the diagnosis did he tell his wife and loved ones about his illness. The news hit everyone hard, and Randa was devastated.

The news of his death left Randa in a hysterical state. When she first learned them, she felt as though she was struck by a fierce lightning bolt; except her body was numb. She supplicated to Allah to make her suffer actual physical pain as opposed to this horrid feeling at the pit of her stomach. She did not want to believe her life partner was gone, she chose denial as a way to deal with his death.

The tears kept flowing like a river of sadness and grief. She sat there plunged in the profoundest grief that can come to the human soul, reforming in her mind the image of a man who had been friend, companion and lover during eight months of youth too dynamic and promising to be distorted by uneven fortune.

Day after day, week after week and month after month Randa was trying to cope with the death of her husband. She was trying to readjust her life and set it to a new mode, the mode of life as a widow; a mode she never thought existed until Hussein was gone.

Randa was a strong woman. She refused to embrace defeat in her life, and she rebuffed to accept the life of woe and sorrow. She got herself together and decided to go back to school. She needed to do something to keep herself occupied. Finally obtaining her college degree, she thought, she could find a job and become a working woman.

Little did Randa know that she was going to face even more hardships in her life after the passing of her husband. In actuality, she was a young, beautiful widow with a whole life ahead of her. Her family wanted to marry her to someone new, after all society’s acceptance of widows and female divorcees has always been slender.

Randa was finally okay to deal with life without Hussein, but she was certainly not okay with marrying someone else. She was still grieving the loss of her partner, a part of her soul was missing… how they expected her to marry someone else was beyond her comprehension. Despite her constant refusal of suitors, her family kept trying to set her up with a new man every so often. They were persistent, and they thought that if they kept pushing her that she would finally cave. But she never did, she stood her grounds and said no to each and every single one of them.

Right now Randa is in her final year at university, she will be graduating in a few months. Her soul is filled with hope of a new life and a new beginning. She is aspiring to become a successful career woman.

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