Ona Ofunne

I was born ay 10:55 a.m. on the 25th day of April 1988. My parents love to remind me that I was one of those children that were either going to live and kill their mothers in the process, or just die with my mother and be the child that never lived. On the contrary, I have come to believe that I am definitely one of the best things that have happened to my family.

I have one other brother (Adim). Growing up, he was my idol. I did everything he did and basically emulated his every move. He is now working as a software engineer somewhere in the Mid-west in the United States. I live in Lagos, Nigeria.

Over the years, my family has changed drastically. We used to be a simple family of 4- my father, my mother, my brother and my beautiful self. But now, it is all complex. My mother died on the 6th of June, 2005 from the deadly and avoidable disease of Sickle cell a few days before my high school graduation- leaving me with just my brother and father- or so I thought.

On the 23rd of August, 2008, my father remarried and his new wife had 2 grown up children of her own from her previous marriage. So now, I have 2 more siblings. Guess what? My new siblings are both married. One of them has 2 lovely daughters and the other a son and 2 twin daughters.

Now, this does not make life much easier for me. I now have this massive family which consists of a father, a step mom, brother, step- sister, step-brother, Sister-in-law, brother-in-law, nieces and a newphew! My family was transformed in just 8 years from this small portable sedan carrying famly to a 2 mini-vans carrying family!

In retrospect, I would not trade my family for the world.