𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 🗺️⚓

Our neighbour, a Yoruba man in his mid-30s. He is married with 1 baby girl. His mother died a long time ago, and his father who is now very old is suffering from dementia. He is the only son, with three sisters, all are married. His father’s condition became increasingly serious. He would sometimes leave the house and lose his way back home. He no longer recognised people around him, and most of the memories he could remember were from his younger days. The father’s condition worsened that he had to move him into his own house. His youngest sister, who had been taking care of their father, got married in September this year, and there was nobody else available to look after him. So, our neighbour and his wife took responsibility for caring for him. He works as a lecturer and usually travels to Jigawa State for work, leaving his wife at home with the children and his father. One day, he returned from Jigawa and discovered that his wife was not at home and his father had been locked inside the house. He called his wife to ask what was happening. That was when she explained that his father had started mistaking her for his wife because of his condition. According to her, there was an incident when she was resting on her bed in their bedroom, and his father suddenly walked into the room wearing only his singlet. He started talking to her as though she were his wife and even sat on her bed. She quietly got up and left the room. She explained that this had happened on several occasions, but after that particular incident, she could no longer feel comfortable staying in the house. She packed some of her belongings and moved into the neighbour’s basement. They live in a rented compound with three separate flats, and all three flats are occupied by married couples. She still comes to their flat to cook and prepare food for the father, but she no longer sleeps there. Instead, she spends the night in the neighbour’s basement and locks his father inside their flat before leaving. The wife told her husband that she could no longer continue living under those circumstances. She insisted that he either find another arrangement for his father or she would return to Ibadan and stay with her parents because can’t stay there anymore. She also suggested taking his father to a hospital or care facility where professionals could look after him, but her husband refused. He said his father had sacrificed so much to raise him, and now that he was old and helpless, this was the time for him to repay those sacrifices. He said he would never abandon his father to strangers to look after him while he was still alive. As things stand, the husband refuses to send his father to a care facility, while the wife refuses to return home.