I had a very hectic day in the office, trying to find a document; I can't remember where I kept it. Well, that's by the way side. Last night after work, I and my boyfriend went out for a drink to cool off the tension of the day work. Right there at drinking bar, we happen to come across some old friends, so we had a full house. I really had fun; lots of gossip went round our drinking table. I noticed a lady around our table, she was quiet, she wasn’t responding to our jokes and she wasn’t contributing to our discussion, I knew right then, something was eating her up". I decided to cheer her up by directing a joke to her, but she just smiled, and continued to stare into space. Basically, it was obvious that she didn’t want any form of distraction, in front of her, where about four empty bottles of alcohol. I looked at her closely, I noticed she had tears drops in her eyes, I was moved to go and sit next to her, and hear her woes. After much persuasion on my side, she decided to open up to me. Dear readers, her stories will shock you to your bone marrows:

Here is her Story;

My name is Rosaline, am 45 years old, I don’t have a husband, I don’t have any child of my own. Life has been so cruel to me., I wish I wasn’t born. At a very tender age I lost my parents to the cruel hand of death. I grew up living with my father Kinsmen, nobody showed me loved, at thirteen still a virgin, I was raped by some group of boys, after the rape I found out I was pregnant, I couldn’t keep the child, because I couldn’t tell whom the father was amongst the four guys that raped me. So I decided to go for an abortion that almost ruined my life, because I had no money to visit a specialist I went to a quack doctor who was inexperienced, in the process of carrying out the abortion, he damaged my womb, so today I can’t be a mother, because I have no womb.

My father kinsmen got tired of taking care of me, they decided to throw me out of their house, at nineteen, I had no where to go, no profession of any kind, I couldn’t afford to go to school because the funds wasn’t there. I found my way to the city and decided to find a life for myself. The city was worst than the village, everybody wants to take advantage of your situation, instead of helping you out, they end up complicating the whole thing. I managed to get a job as a waitress in a local restaurant. My boss was very hostile, she was in her mid forties then. When I applied for the job, she had to scrutinize me properly before she considered me for the job. I thought she was just being formal in doing that, not knowing she had something "up her Sleeves”.

Madam Franca, that’s my boss name, gave me the job as a waitress in her restaurant. I was happy, thinking that my troubles have ended not knowing it was just the beginning. At my first day at work, my boss called me into her closet and disclose the nature of the job I will be doing. She said, she had male clients that needs to satisfy their lust with women, so what she does, she employs beautiful ladies as waitress, but that isn’t the main job, she said the main job is for her employees to satisfy the men by sleeping with them. When I heard her statement, I was shocked, to know that job involves prostitution, I told her I won't be able to do it, that I would rather work as a mere waitress and earn an honest money than to sell my pride of womanhood for money, she grew annoyed and threw me out into the cold night. I searched for job for another two months without luck so I decided to accept madam Franca’s offer.

My first experience in the job was very awful. I remembered vividly what happened, a very wealthy client of my boss came to our restaurant that he needed a woman for the night. About five of us girls were asked to parade in front of the man. We were almost half naked; we wore skimpy clothes that exposed all our curves. At the end of the parade, the man choose me, I had no choice but to follow him to a hotel that night.

When we got to the hotel room, I was fidgeting, being that I was naïve about the business of prostitution I didn’t know what to do, the man was angry that I was a novice, he beat the hell out of me, and he later raped me. After the ordeal, I put on my clothes and asked for my money, he laughed at me and told me he had already given the money to my boss, I was shocked beyond words, I then realized my boss was using me for her selfish reasons. I felt humiliated and used that day, I walked out of that hotel room with tears in my eyes. From that day, I decided to out smart my boss, I made sure I had more clients and I went into the business full time. Before you know it, I was making it, I had to quit working for madam Franca, I went into full time prostitution and even employ girls to work for me. I was really successful as a prostitute; I traveled all over the world with my clients, I really made a lot of money in the business of prostitution.

To the outside world, I appeared happy, but on the inside of me, I was dying for real love, I hated men with a passion, I slept with them for their money, and nothing else. In the midst of all this, I met a friend, called George, he is divorced with two kids, we are close pals, but there was no emotional ties between us, whenever I needed someone to talk to he is always willing to listen, and gradually our relationship grew into likeness for each other, from likeness to appreciation and from appreciation to love. He encouraged me to quit prostitution and live a normal life, and to crown it all he now proposed to me, I opened up to him and told him about the abortion I had when I was still young and innocent. He was so pathetic, but he insisted he will still marry me. I cried the day he proposed to me, he knelt down and gave me a ring, and he asked the big question? WILL YOU MARRY ME? At this stage I started crying, this time it was tears of joy, I said to myself “as rotten as I am, I finally found love”, at that instant I decided to give up prostitution and start a new life afresh with him by accepting his proposal.

I thought my woes have ended, not knowing fate has another thing installed for me. I and George decided to get married. We were happy about our decision together until one fateful day all our hopes of getting married crashed to the ground. George’s eldest daughter got involved in a fatal accident and was rushed to the hospital, she was immediately taken to the intensive care unit. I and George arrived at the clinic immediately we heard the news. When we got there, the doctors told us that she had lost a lot of blood and they need to get someone to donate blood for her, otherwise she will die, so they took George’s blood, but after testing they found out that she doesn’t have the same blood group with the dad, so I decided to offer mine, when they tested it , they found out that we have the same blood group, so they went ahead to test for HIV Virus(AIDS).

When the results came out, the doctor called us into his room and broke the news to us as gently as he could. I couldn’t believe my ears, that I had AIDS, I was dumbfounded, George too was crying , in the midst of our tears, he promised to stand by me, till my dying days, because he loved me. So Ejiro, this is my story, tell me, what do you have to say to console me, what hope do I have left? I am dying can’t you see that.

Dear readers at this point, when her story ended, I couldn’t find words to say to her, I sobbed with her, for once in my life, I couldn’t get any encouragement word to say to her, I pitied her condition and I promised myself that I will write this story on my blog, so that readers out there can comment on the story and give their words of encouragement for me to pass on to her and not just that, for readers of my blog to know that AIDS IS REAL. SO WATCH IT” DON’T BE A VICTIM.