A Surprise Visit
As I sat at the waiting lounge of Jack and Jill Ventures waiting for my ‘daughter’ to come out from a meeting that she was chairing, I didn’t know what to expect from her. It had been 27 years since I last saw her when she was two years of age. I didn’t know how she looked, but I was glad that after looking for her for almost a year, I had managed to track her.
I sat there feeling guilty and all this seemed awkward to me. There was this innate feeling in me which urged me to leave her alone and let her carry on with her life. Yet, there was another driving force which told me to wait and accept whatever she would say to me. Since I learnt that she worked there as the head of public relations, I had tried to secure an appointment to meet her and she was always busy.
I feared letting her know that it was her mother who wanted to meet her until I realized that by telling her secretary the truth was the only way I would get to meet my daughter. And that was what I did the previous day but I couldn’t meet her because she was not in. But when she had about the news, she told the secretary to schedule an appointment the next day.
As I sat there, I calmly cooled by nervousness by perusing some magazines on the table. After almost an hour of waiting, the secretary told me that I was being requested to go to her office. I was ushered in and behind the big oval table, sat a beautiful lady who looked exactly as the man that I had dated 28 years ago. She quickly rose and came to hug me. With tears in her eyes, she kissed me and drew a chair for me.
28 Years Ago
I was in my second year at college when I met my daughter’s dad. He was a freshman who had joined the college and we met at a sporting event where I was a cheerleader / baton thrower. He must have spotted me then because after the event, he was the one who came after me.
At first, I resisted him because he was younger than me. But soon I gave in because he was so nice and lovely to me. We started dating. Like other college lads, we also had sex several times. After several months of dating, I realized that I was pregnant. I remember telling him about my pregnancy and it really worried him. He was totally against being a father claiming that he was ready for parenthood.
The Abortion Request
The he made an earnest request that shock me. He wanted me to procure an abortion. I couldn’t believe it. I vehemently detested against his idea. There was no way that I 
When the holidays approached, I was four months pregnant and applied to the school administration to defer my studies. The request went through. Back at home, things didn’t augur well with my parents because they too wanted me to abort my child; I declined and ran away from home to live with my aunt. But within a week, my mum came for me and took me home with a promise to help me take care of my baby.
The Adoption
A later gave birth and took care of my child for a year before my mum convinced me to give her for adoption so that I could go back to school. It wasn’t an easy choice, but my options were slim. It was my parents who took care of all that and my daughter was given away and I went back to school. I never saw her since then.
Not until I went looking for her. I’m so glad that she was happy to meet me and also introduce me to her parents; so happy that I realized that she was engaged for marriage and wanted me to be there that day. So happy that she forgave me.
