This is a nightmare. I can’t move, even if I could I couldn’t save them, the wounds on my legs are deep and I am losing blood fast. All I can do is watch as they are going to kill my children. I beg for a miracle to happen, anything that will save them. Their screams are all I can hear and no matter how hard I try to get up I just fall back down, lying in a pool of my own blood. I can’t take the pain anymore, my vision begins to blur as I lose consciousness. But suddenly the screams stop, everything silent as if the world has just stopped. With great difficulty I lift myself up hoping that I will find my children safe and there she is, my angel.
She is so small yet she stands her ground despite all the angry men before her. I can see in her arms she holds one of my children, her red hair shining like the burning sun. As I feel myself slipping away I know my child will be safe in the arms of this angel. Even if only one survives it is enough for me to be at peace. The angel slowly approaches me with my child safely held in her arms.
“Please, hold on” she begs. Her eyes hold sadness and worry as they look into mine.
“Thank you.” I could hardly understand the words coming out of my mouth. “Thank you… so m-much.” She carefully places by child in her lap and starts to rip of fabric from her skirt and wraps them around my wounds.
“Don’t worry, you’re going to be OK, you’ll be OK.” She keeps repeating this while she wraps my bloodied legs. I can see that she is holding back tears. With the little amount of energy I have left I lift my arm and place my hand over hers.
“Please look after my child.” The tears she was holding in began to fall from her shining eyes staining her face.
“No… please, your child.”
I smiled softly as I wiped her tears away. “Please don’t cry for me my angel, I am at peace. You saved my child and I am eternally grateful.” After taking one more look at my child lying safely in the angel’s lap I let the darkness fall over me, and then my life ends.
I watch as the life left the eyes of the brave woman before me. I held her child close to me as tears blurred my vision, but I held them in remembering her last words. As I gazed at her form lying before me I saw from her peaceful expression that she was telling the truth. So I kept my promise and took her child to raise as my own, and after a while I began to wonder; why were they killing children? Are there more people suffering like this and is anyone going to help them? That’s when I made a decision that would change my life forever. I decided to be their angel.
Scottish Charity No. SC032781
© Mary Slessor Foundation 2016