Pastor Lucy from Kenya has narrated how she managed to hide her HIV positive status from her husband for seven years.
Gatekeepers News reports that Pastor Lucy, is a mother of two grown children and a grandma of one, has been married for nearly twenty-one years.
According to Lucy, she found out that her mother had been infected with AIDS, a few years after she had died.
Lucy told BBC that after the death of her mother, she dropped out of school and relocated to Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi, where she got married at the age of 17 to a 30-year-old guy, a relationship that lasted barely one year.
According to the report, it took Lucy four fruitless attempts to be married before she became pregnant and gave birth to her son, whose upbringing was a major task for her to overcome.
Lucy and her two younger siblings were catered for by their grandma. Lucy said she had worked as a bartender and dated briefly during that period.
She said she had at least three boyfriends at a time, and she was constantly hunting for the one who could afford her more. It wasn’t long before Lucy found a man who would become her spouse for life. She claims that they were only friends at the beginning of their relationship, but after seven months they decided to be married.
After she got pregnant, the hospital mandated that she be tested for HIV as part of the admission process. During this time, Lucy learned she was pregnant with an HIV-positive child. As a result of her shock, Lucy kept her illness a secret from her husband when she returned home.
“I was terrified when I went home, thinking about my unborn child and my husband, but I wasn’t ready to break the ice regarding my HIV status, so I persuaded myself in my heart that it shouldn’t come from me,” Lucy explains.
The doctors warned Lucy not to breastfeed after the baby was born, but she refused to listen to them out of concern that her husband would find out. Her son developed a serious illness seven years later, necessitating an emergency hospital trip for the entire family. Pastor Lucy admitted to hiding her HIV status from her spouse for seven years during an appearance on BBC.
Her spouse and their son were then tested for HIV. Lucy was the only one in the group to be diagnosed with HIV. While Lucy was glad that she had not infected the baby or the father, she was still concerned about her marriage to her husband, who was HIV-negative. It was a day all its own.
“Something out of the ordinary occurred. It wasn’t until we went back to our house that my spouse mentioned it. He did not inquire about my HIV status. He kept a low profile when it came to it. As I took antiviral medication every day, my life continued on.” Lucy recollects.
She began a life of personal piety, with the purpose to understand where her life was heading, and also to pursue religious education with the intention of becoming a priest after marrying her spouse She’s been running support groups and offering guidance to those with HIV for a long time now.
While she acknowledges that it is uncommon for religious leaders to come forward and discuss their HIV status, she believes that it has given women in religious groups, who are often the targets of HIV stigma, a reason to have hope.
Lucy’s mother, two aunts, and one uncle all died of HIV.
