Sheila (the Untold Story)

Sheila

Sometimes life is defined by success, sometimes by happy family, but somehow life is defined by what we feel inside.

This is a story about a woman named Sheila; she’s neither a successful entrepreneur woman nor a woman with the most caring family. She’s just a woman that would give her best for her life, so she could live fully. She died in year 2006 of breast cancer, just a month away from her 45 years birthday. Please, don’t pity her short life because you haven’t read this yet.

This woman Sheila was twin. She and her twin were so close; you could say that they were only separated by two different bodies. Her story begin when she was a teenager, her love was knitted with a man named Jojo. Lately at that time, Sheila’s big family found out that Jojo has already married and got two children, everything seemed so unbelievable. Her big family said that she had to let him go to his first wife but what could they say, she just loved him so much. Everything got even worse when someday she got pregnant, she told her family that she’s carrying Jojo’s baby.

Atlast, they got married in the middle of nowhere of Jojo’s decision in location, hence Sheila’s big family couldn’t do anything but to let her get married. Day by day, years by years, Sheila loved him with all of her heart. But he rarely came to Sheila’s house. She had two sons and life was so cruel as it it was, her twin was a living witness.

Everyday she told her twin, Elia that she couldn’t take the pain anymore, she just wanted to leave this world, she just loved him so bad so she could really kill herself over this man, Jojo. Sheila cried almost everynight, but was she really sad? No one knew. Because in the morning, she would shine like the sun and went to work to support her incomplete family. It’s not like Jojo never gave her money every month, it was just he gave her enough money only for her, not with the boys. You might think he was the biggest jerk that ever lives. Well, she never thought that way.

It was almost her silver-wed when she noticed that she got this unusual breast lump. Elia always told her to check it to the doctor, Sheila always said that she had no money, but she also made sure that she already checked it to the public centre health.
Sadly, the result came too late; the lump was really a breast cancer. Elia’s family (the only family that care of Sheila) broke down in tears for days, weeks even months. While Sheila, She just said that she would still be in this world for a long time enough, so don’t pity her that bad, she used to be a woman with a lots of faith, of God and of Jojo. What a strong woman she was; she lived her painful life everyday for five years with breast cancer.

Jojo’s had not changed at all; he was still the same person. But Sheila never changed her love, until someday Jojo became more often coming to her house and had become her real home when she stayed in the hospital for days. What a shame, that his consciousness came way too late.

Everynight she felt in pain, she couldn’t even lied down on her bed for three years before she passed away. She kept her pain inside, away from Elia, Elia’s daughters, Jojo and even her sons. But they knew, they all knoew that she was in a great pain. She never cried, she would just press her chest and stomach everytime the pain came. She let no one know. 

She always emphasized to Elia that as a woman you have to respect your husband; the only person you love, you have to thank God for everything that He gave you; you should embrace them happily. It was like she told us that she loves Jojo and being married to him was never a mistake, that she was happy eventhough she got cancer, she never felt fail her life, that she had lived her life fully so that we should too.

Five years of uneasy nights; including three years of sleepless nights, as a human she deserved some cries of tears, but she chose to be strong and face the pain. You might think that she was really a strong woman. While we think her as a Godsend to teach us love, because she never stopped loving her husband, she never stopped loving God until her time was through, eventhough her life was never easy, not at once!