Famed Nollywood actress Shan George has narrated how a phone call proved to be a miracle that saved her mother and herself from their plans of suicide.
After her acting career went south, Shan said she and her single mother faced serious hardship, and at a point she had to do ‘small works’ to earn her some change.
At that time, her mother was in and out of hospitals and she had to carry her on her back, which resulted in Shan having a spine injury some years ago.
The situation reached a suicidal point, and the mother and daughter agreed to end their lives with chemicals.
“When I was suicidal, I was so broke one day, one of my visitors from a long time had brought this shaving powder. I wanted to put it in the water and drink. I told my mother that I’m going to kill myself because I’m tired, I’m frustrated. My mother said ‘okay, you’re not going alone. We have to go together.’ My mum said ‘yeah, bring it.”
In an interview, she narrated that her mother grew cold feet and persuaded her to shift their plans to the next morning. That was the decision that saved both of their lives.
“It was in the night. So I took it to my mother. I was happy that at least two of us would go jeje because this life been tire person I no go lie. So my mum took the shaving powder and the cup and the spoon and then she was pretending that she wanted to mix it. Then she paused and said ‘Wait oh. It’s night. It’s very late in the night. If we come go die for night now, go the other side, it will be dark. We no go see road oh.’ So she now said ‘let’s do it in the morning.’ I agreed.
When I was going to leave her in her room to go to my room, she called me back and said I should give her the mixture. That she would keep it there. So I gave it to her, she put it by her bed and said ‘first thing in the morning, come, so that when we go the other side, we can see road because you don’t know how that place will be.’ That’s how I went to bed that night”.
She continued that she received a call very early in the morning from a friend she had worked previously for.
After a brief conversation, she received an alert of N1.5 million , enough to sustain them for months.
To her it was a miracle as she did not exchange contact with the said friend, neither did she inform anyone of her mother’s ill health.
“I saw N1.5 million. I was confused. I took the phone to my mother and showed her. My mom said ‘is this from your account?’ I explained what happened. Mocking me, she now said ‘just send the money back, are we not going today?’ I said, ‘You and who? Go where? No oh. I’m going nowhere!”
Till this day, Shan said she has not faced any financial problems and the idea of suicide has never crossed her mind.