PROLOGUE
Ihuoma has been married into the family of the Chizue’s in the village of Nkwocha. Being the only daughter of her family and late mother, the ceremony was designed at its peak and to wish her well. Nduka her husband then took her to the city with him where he lives. Within the first couple years of their marriage, Ihuoma put to bed a healthy baby girl. They named her Chidalu by tradition and baptized her with Mary as they were Christians.
One day Ihuoma’s father went to sleep at night and journeyed to eternity. He was given a befitting burial by his three sons and daughter. As time went on, Mary was enrolled for child education. At such tender age, she was brilliant in character, and showed great academic excellence. But there was a dawning hindrance to her future; Nduka’s business was going down very fast. He was been owed money by lots of people, and also his trusted acquaintances made use of his illiteracy in education and vanished with his fortune before he understood what was going on. He didn’t find the thieves with his fortune and suing his debtors who were in higher offices and positions to court was a lost course. Also he had no certificate to take up an official job. Sadly, he took his family back to his native town, Nkwocha. In frustration, he married another wife Uzoma, because Ihuoma could neither bear him a son nor a second child.
Life became very miserable for both mother and daughter. Fortunately, Mary has taken the entrance examination into secondary school before coming home and was qualified to register into one of the good schools in town. But this did not go down well with her paternal relatives who preferred she should stay at home and get a husband who would lend a hand to the family situation. Ihuoma knew she had to fight tooth and nail all by herself if her daughter should go to school, and it was a sacrifice she was willing to make, she who knew the values of education and what it had done to her husband and her family was fearlessly ready with a gentle ardor to lit a bright light through her daughter into the family.