Mother No More –Poem by Betty Makoni

Poem is dedicated to a two year old girl  whose mothe (Mary Mushapaidzi) was murdered by her father .Please see story below. I saw her Mother when Marsha  hosted a dinner for me to meet with Zimbabweans during my US tour fundraising for my charity,Girl Child Network Worldwide . I am pained to know Mary Mushapaidzi  is gone. I will give this poem to her daughter when she can read and write and starts asking what took her mother.

Title :Mother No More –Poem by Betty Makoni

At age two you stopped being a daughter

At age nine I stopped being a daughter

My mother stopped being a mother

Your mother stopped being a mother

This poem is from a forty year old daughter who for four decades mourns on

To a two year old daughter who for four and more decades mourns on

Mother No More, this message I write for decades to come

A two year old daughter who does not know No More means gone forever

Gone forever means never coming back, Never on this earth again

Daughter who will ask, `What did my mother look like ?`

Whereupon I will answer `Met at Marsha place, was just a passerby and she kept angelic smile`

Here is photo, five of us here, she kept her smile.`

She will ask` Is that all you saw on her?`

Whereupon I will say,` Yes angels smile and go.`

I will tell her the rest is news after news

Same gruesome murder in the home

Same father and same anger

But for me and her, Mother No More

When you have to be daughter and mother

When you mother you as a daughter

When Motherhood is No More ,Mother is No More

Motherhood stops, slips away

Always slippery, always so easily

Motherhood gives, fatherhood takes

Mother No More is history for two year old girl

Now this picture with five of us mothers I will give

But your Mother No more here

Mother No more is what we all have to tell a two year  old girl

Title of poem is taken from my autobiography where I learnt of my mother `s death in similar circumstances

The newspaper story

Man who allegedly beat girlfriend to death charged with murder

By KOMO Staff Published: Oct 11, 2011 at 1:42 PM PDT Last Updated: Oct 11, 2011 at 6:17 PM PDT

TACOMA, Wash. — A 38-year-old man who prosecutors say beat his girlfriend to death and then burned her body in an effort to hide the evidence pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder Tuesday.

A judge ordered Mthulisi Ndlovu held on $1 million bail.

Prosecutors say the murder came to light when Ndlovu went to the Bonney Lake police station late Sunday morning to report Mary Mushapaidzi had gone missing after an early morning jog.

Officers followed Ndlovu back to his duplex and noted it smelled as if plastic had been burned, but Ndlovu claimed he’d been burning junk mail on the garage floor, according to court documents.

But the neighbor who lives in the other duplex unit told officers he heard loud banging in the unit Saturday night shortly after Ndlovu arrived home and another neighbor reported hearing yelling and what sounded like someone being beaten with a bat, but decided not to call police because he didn’t hear gunshots, prosecutors said.

Detectives obtained a search warrant and upon entering Ndlovu’s home, found blood streaks on a stairway leading to the garage. As they followed the trail, they discovered a burn barrel in the garage that contained human remains, prosecutors said, along with separated pruning shears that had been apparently used as a weapon against the victim.

Prosecutors say Ndlovu later admitted to investigators that when he returned home Saturday, he and Mushapaidzi argued about dirty dishes. He claimed she struck him in the face with her purse, at which time he knocked her to the floor, climbed on top of her and punched her several times, eventually killing her, according to prosecutors.

After realizing she was dead, Ndlovu put her body into the burn barrel and later lit her on fire, prosecutors said. Investigators say the couple’s 2- and 8-year-old children were home at the time of the attack. They are both now in protective custody.

Prosecutors say Ndlovu has no criminal history and there is no evidence of prior domestic violence with the couple.

“It’s overwhelming. It seems so far-fetched. It’s like it’s not reality,” said family friend Marsha Mutisi. “It seems out of character for him with the details that we’re all finding out, but there’s a lot that’s not known.”

If convicted, Ndlovu faces 22 to 27 years in prison. The case is not eligible for the death penalty