As I marched along the sacred court yard at Mucurapo Senior Secondary School in full kit I hear my drill instructor shouting commands, “keep straight, toes pointed.”
I felt proud that another female was giving commands – she would do the same thing during PT at 6am in the morning; Monica Blake my Sergeant at Mucurapo Cadet Unit, was a fit, slim built, proud and able-bodied woman in our unit – however something was not right and things began to change.
Sgt. Blake as we would call her began rubbing her eyes and missing counts and would complain about the glare or sun in her eyes – nonetheless she rallied through – she still ran monthly 5K’s and kept fit; little did we know Sgt. Blake would lose her eye sight.
I sat down with Monica to celebrate her win – her win over battling Lupus and losing her eye sight.
While we can’t be face to face as before due to the COVID-19 pandemic she told me she was diagnosed with Lupus and it damaged her eye sight but not her faith in God and her drive to live a normal life again.
She also said doctors told her many times that she could not have children and had to remove her womb.
Listen to her story –
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