“My husband is a pickpocket, I cannot live
with a man who has refused to turn from
his criminal acts,’’ 29-year-old Chioma
Okorie told an Ojo Customary Court in
Lagos on Wednesday.
She pleaded with the court to dissolve the
six-year-old marriage.
Chioma, a mother of three, told the court
that her husband, Timi, abandoned her and
the children for consistently exposing his
criminal activities including pick pocketing.
“I thought I could change him but he is
rather getting worse even with the
intervention of pastors.
“Since l filed this case in court, he has
refused to appear because he is afraid
that he might be arrested.
“He even tried to forcefully collect my
children from me if not for the intervention
of my landlord and neighbours,” Chioma, a
trader, said.
“He does not have right over my children
because he has not paid my dowry, he
does not even have a permanent home
because he sleeps with friends.’’
She pleaded with the court to dissolve
their marriage and also restrain her
husband from having the custody of the
children.
The Acting President of the court, Chief
Joseph Ogunmola, said the wife should
take custody of the children and monitor
their movements against the husband’s
possible “abduction’’ of the children.
He directed the court’s clerk to ensure
that the husband was contacted before
the next date of adjournment on Aug. 31
for judgment.
Nicole Barr, 12, earned a 162 — a perfect score — on her Mensa IQ test. (Photo: Jim Barr)
A
12-year-old in the U.K. has received a perfect score on her Mensa IQ
test, ranking her two points above both Albert Einstein and Stephen
Hawking in the society’s elite group of members.
Nicole
Barr took the test at the same time as her father did a couple of weeks
ago, and got her results — a score of 162 — on Thursday, easily beating
his score. Her father, Jim Barr, says he had a hunch that Nicole would
be admitted to Mensa, despite the low acceptance rate — the honor is
extended only to those who score in the top 2 percent. “I was expecting
her to do well. I knew she had a quick mind for working out problems and
puzzles,” Jim tells Yahoo Parenting. “I didn’t want to put any pressure
on her, so we went for the fun of it. I had the idea in my mind that
she would get into Mensa, but when I got the results back, I thought,
‘Wow that’s a high score!’ It wasn’t until later that I learned it was
the top score possible on that test.”
Ann
Clarkson, communications manager for British Mensa, confirmed Nicole’s
score to Yahoo Parenting. “[A score of] 162 puts her in the top one
percent of the population, so it is exceptional by any definition,” she
says.
Barr
says he decided to sign his daughter up for the test because he thought
she’d have fun. “She’s always loved numbers and puzzles, and she’s
always been excellent at math, performing several years ahead of her age
group in school,” he says. “It’s just the type of thing she likes to
do. She likes challenging herself.”
And
throughout the test, Jim could tell that Nicole was having an easy time
of it. “It was split into several sections, each with a time limit, and
she finished each one early,” he says. “In the last section, at the
four-minute warning, I quickly glanced up to see if Nicole was feeling
the pressure, and she already had put her pen down. There were questions
I didn’t finish at all.”
In
the end, Nicole scored significantly higher than her dad. “She was
rubbing my face in it a bit,” Jim says, laughing. “She obviously beat me
by a long way.”
Nicole
has showed an above-average aptitude for problem-solving since she was
very young. “Before she was 2, she was adding numbers up and doing
calculations,” he says. “At 2, she could use a Nintendo DS with absolute
ease — it would amaze family and friends how easily she could work
anything technical.”
And
while Jim says his daughter enjoys reading and solving math problems in
her spare time – even during summer break – he points out that her
interests aren’t all academic. “She likes playing soccer, and she’s
performing in a Shakespeare play coming up,” he says. “She does enjoy
acting, and she loves singing — even if it’s just to herself.”
As
for how Nicole plans to use her superior IQ down the line, her father
says she wants to be a doctor and “maybe invent a new medicine.” It’s a
career path he thinks would suit her. “She often thinks outside of the
box,” Jim explains. “She sees things with a different point of view,
even when many adults might be scratching their heads.”
Jim,
of course, is an exceptionally proud dad, though he says that has
nothing to do with the test. “I was always proud,” he says. “The test
hasn’t changed anything.”
The
letter arrived today. Although I won’t mark it return to sender,
neither will I read the whole thing in one sitting. I’ll take it in
small doses — the way I would with any kind of bitter medicine.
I
don’t need to open it to know that it isn’t a happy letter telling me
I’ve been accepted into the college of my choice, or that I’ve been left
a ton of money from a long lost relative.
I
can tell from the scrawly, once beautiful handwriting on the outside of
the envelope that it’s a letter from my mom ending our relationship.
“I
don’t want to let the cat out, so I’m not opening the door. I’ll send
you a letter. Goodbye!” My mother said abruptly behind her locked
bedroom door, as my boyfriend and I were leaving her house after a
tension-filled visit.
The only time she’s ever affectionate with me is when I first arrive at her house or when I’m about to leave.
Since
I’m gifted at translating the language of my mother, I knew that
getting a letter, instead of a hug or a kiss goodbye, was a bad sign. I
was in trouble; old-school correspondence is when my mother is at her
most blunt and brutal.
“Why
do you always have to make such a big deal of it?” I asked her once
regarding her written purging of old friends and relatives.
She
didn’t have a good reason for me, and made it seem as if letting things
die quietly wasn’t in her skill set. She felt compelled to put it in
writing.
Since
most of her friends have passed away, she doesn’t have to end as many
relationships as she once did but that has only slowed her down — not
stopped her completely.
I don’t understand her need to formally announce when she isn’t talking to someone. It just seems to be unnecessarily unkind.
Why
not let those relationships that she isn’t interested in pursuing
slowly cease to be? She rarely picks up the phone anyway — she should
just stop answering it all together.
But for my mother, if she’s finished with you, she wants you to know about it — and she wants it to sting.
I
opened the envelope, and pulled the letter out. It was at least six
pages. I glanced over it and saw words like “disappointed,” “behavior,”
“crappy,” and “finished.”
One
of the things we fought about during our last visit was that I refused
to give up my life in Los Angeles, move in with her, and become her
caregiver. She never gave me much thought while I was growing up, so why
should I have to take care of her?
I
considered it for a moment until she said, “I’ve always depended on
strangers during my life, so why shouldn’t I in my death?” It was a
weird thing for anyone to say, especially someone who does have family
members to help her.
If I weren’t my mother’s daughter, and we met, we wouldn’t become friends.
We
have very little in common — she loves nature and long walks but hates
having possessions. I enjoy all things pop culture and have a lot of
stuff. Beyond that, I’m just not my mother’s type of person, and she
isn’t mine. It annoys her that I’m what she describes as “nice.”
I
hate the feeling that my own mother dislikes me. No matter how hard I
try to be respectful and patient, we just don’t get along. I don’t have
to read the letter very carefully to know how she feels about me.
When
I was growing up, my mother was always self-centered, but she wasn’t
mean. I fear that her version of dementia isn’t forgetting people and
places; it’s forgetting how to be kind, tolerant, and loving.
Although
I’ve only skimmed the letter, I see that she’s written, “I want to
discontinue our relationship.” I’m going to do what she should do when
she wants to end a friendship: I’m going to ignore it and hope she’ll
simply forget about it.
I’m
lucky that I’m not an infant or child dependent on their mother and
that I have other women in my life to fill in when I need some maternal
guidance or love.
I’m
putting the letter where I put all the letters I hang on to: in an old,
rusty MTV lunch box. Most of the contents of my letter box are love
letters. This will be my first “I don’t want to love you anymore”
letter.
I
doubt I will ever pull it out when I need the comfort of memories. I
want to forget that I received this letter, but destroying it won’t take
away the awful feeling of getting it in the first place.
I
probably won’t visit my mother any time soon, but I will still call her
on occasion. She enjoys talking about herself, so getting her to tell
me her life stories is a good way for me to avoid any negativity and
still stay in touch.
I’m not a masochist; she’s just my closest living relative and I’m not ready to have her gone from my life entirely.
I
can change our status from mother and daughter, to daughter and
emotionally distant relative, and try to keep some kind of connection.
Port Authority Police Officer Brian McGraw with newly born 6-pound, 14-ounce baby girl, Asenat Abdrabo (Photo: AFP Photo)
New
York (AFP) - A New York woman delivered a healthy baby girl at the
World Trade Center commuter station on Tuesday, the first birth at the
site since the 9/11 attacks, officials said.
The
woman from Queens, who went into labor at full term, gave birth at the
World Trade Center PATH station at 2:30 am, assisted by Port Authority
police officers.
The
baby girl is called Asenat and weighs six pounds, 14 oz (3.1 kilos).
She was delivered by Officer Brian McGraw on the mezzanine concourse of
the station, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey, which operates the station, said.
“The
woman stated she felt the baby coming and the officers prepared the
area and aided for a possible birth,” the Port Authority said in a
statement.
“Emergency Medical Services arrived on the scene and within a couple of minutes the woman delivered a baby girl,” it added.
Asenat, her parents and her two-year-old brother were transported to Beekman Downtown Hospital in lower Manhattan.
Joe
Pentangelo, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said she was the first
baby born at the World Trade Center since original twin towers were
destroyed in the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The World Trade Center PATH station has direct commuter rail links to Hoboken and Newark in neighboring New Jersey.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo was among those to tweet his congratulations after the delivery.
The rebuilt World Trade Center is the tallest building in the Western hemisphere and welcomed its first tenants last year.
