I am going to kick off the series by looking at two very important women in my life: My Mum (God rest her soul) and my elder sister Chioma.

As you all probably know already, my Mum is the single strongest influence in my life. There are many others and there will be many more, but this woman here must be given credit for so much that she invested in my and all the people that knew her.

A wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, daughter/sister-in-law with an understanding of family and friendship like I have never seen. A nurse and midwife who would willingly give her life for the people in her care. A teacher, marriage counsellor and deaconess who practised everything she shared.  My Mum is still an enigma to me. I love her very much and I will not stop saying it.

I have written quite a lot about her and below are links to some of them:

A tribute to her,

Getting to know my Mum.

Her generous nature and what that has taught me.

The words she spoke.

All the above mentioned articles and many more are testimonies of the gift and privilege that I was given when God decided the womb that would bring me forth. And, I am not only grateful, I am also indebted. To her, and to the rest of the world.

Her strength still propels me. Her teachings still ring in my ears. Her struggles and victories still push me. Her attitude to life is still a blessing. Her life still inspires me.

If I had my Mum in front of me today, she would be smiling if I told her that I have written about her. But she would tell me to write about other women. She would probably tell me to write about her two sisters, Mrs Maduka and Mrs Oruche, and many other women whose names I can not readily remember, people who I know she loved and admired.  She would tell me about our Pastor’s wife and the widow next door who is single handedly raising her 6 children. She would tell me to write about the patient whose husband nearly killed her and yet she had to go back to him, just because that is what is considered right. Mum would point me to write about Sis Virginia who waited almost 15 years before she had her first and only son and how she stayed steadfast. She would remind me of Mrs Enemuo, whose husband left her to marry another woman and took her three children away from her, how she patiently waited on God until those two children Peter, Paul and Grace came back to her of their own accord, and how a few years after, her estranged husband was begging her to come back…

My mum would find a way to make me see what she saw in these women and convince me that they are the women that deserve to be written about, so today, as I write about my Mum, I am also writing about all these women in her life, because they also became the women in my life.

I can not interview my Mum today and get her to share her story in her own words, but every day I celebrate the life that she lived and I celebrate her story, yet untold. I celebrate all the women in my life and in her life.

She is the first of the women in my life and in our next edition, I will tell you about her first child, my sister Chioma. A blessing to me and to everyone who knows her. Don’t miss it.

After telling you about Chioma, I will tell you about Mrs Ibeke who loved her husband when he had nothing and how together they are building an empire. I will also tell you about Mrs Jane Maduegbuna, whose entrepreneurial effort with her soulmate, as she calls him, will not only inspire, but will also push you to action. I will tell you about my other sisters, and my cousins and my friends and some of the women in my church, and at work and the woman I met on the underground. I will write about the roaring lioness I met two years ago, and I will write about the gentle, soft-spoken girl my friend Douglas married and all the amazing things she is doing.  I will write about my sisters-in-law and the woman that sells vegetables down the road. I will write about my neighbours and maybe I will even write about you. I will tell you about many women and about some of the incredible things they are doing, about the struggles they have faced and the victories attained.

I hope you will enjoy reading these stories as much as I will enjoy writing them. And, I hope that beyond that, that the stories of these women will inspire you and teach your heart as much they are inspiring and teaching my heart.

Welcome to the lives of the women in my life!

Real Women. Real life. Real stories.

Please, do share with us stories of the women in your own life in the comment section, and from time to time, we will choose one story and share it with our readers.