I am Ademola Oso and I am 64 years of age. When I was younger, I lived in Ogun State where I worked as a tailor. I later moved to Bariga, Lagos with my brother, got married and had four children. After a while, I moved to Ikorodu. Shortly after, my wife died. It was devastating, to say the least, but I continued to work hard to care for the children. It would have been easy to pun them off on relatives, but I insisted that my children remain with me as I intended to care for them myself.
My children are grown now. My first child, a girl is 27 years old; the second, 20; the third, a boy, has problems with his eyesight and is 17; while the fourth child is 15. My son's eye problem began when he was aged three.
I simply thought something got into his eye and started using eye drops, but the eye continued to redden and hurt. It was a struggle working, looking after the home and raising four kids singlehandedly; at the same time, I was hoping the eye problem would resolve itself, but it only got worse. That was when I realized it wasn't a problem to be fixed at home, still, I didn't expect that it would become so serious. I began to worry about the limitations this might cause him. So, I approached his eye treatment with new rigor. His eye treatment went on for about three years and I became a frequent visitor at the General Hospital, Ikeja. Sadly, I only got pushed around by the medical personnel. Some people helped me financially, but I was unable to make headway at the hospital. There has been no solution whatsoever. Interestingly, he is the brilliant one, the one who took school seriously. Unfortunately, he has been stigmatized by his eye to the point where he was sent out of school and asked to focus on fixing his eye problem before returning.
Following an x-ray examination of my son's eye, a doctor told me he needed an operation, but by then, all the financial contributions I had received had been exhausted and I couldn't afford the surgery. I have every single medical report from the doctors, showing all the different diagnosis. Unfortunately, I no longer have the strength or the finances to continue going from hospital to hospital. I have genuinely tried my best, but his vision problem remains unresolved till today.
My first-born sells Indomie noodles and lives with one of her friends but visits frequently. The other three live with me; one of them is learning a vocational skill. I do my best to ensure that even if they can't finish school, they are equipped with a skill with which they can utilize to earn a living.
My strength has waned now. I am no longer a tailor; I do odd jobs here and there but for the most part my children support me as much as they can, and I love them dearly.
