Gloria Adebayo was 35 when life tested her strength. After five years of marriage and multiple failed fertility treatments, her husband walked away — no explanation, just a short note on the kitchen table:
“I can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry.”
The silence that followed was deafening. Gloria battled loneliness, shame, and the heavy weight of dreams unfulfilled. But she wasn’t the kind of woman to stay down for long.
In 1997, during a volunteer shift at a local child welfare center in Lagos, she met a set of brothers — five boys, all under the age of 10, abandoned by their relatives after the death of their parents. No one wanted to adopt them because they came as a group. And so, they stayed… waiting.
Something in Gloria’s heart stirred.
She didn’t have the resources. She didn’t have a husband. But she had love — so much love, and she knew it wasn’t meant to stay locked up in her heart.
One by one, she brought them home. First Segun, then Tunde, then the twins, Ikenna and Ifeanyi, and finally, baby Chuka. Raising them wasn’t easy — there were hospital visits, school fees, tears, and teenage drama. But there was also laughter, dancing in the rain, and Sunday mornings filled with jollof rice and gospel music.
Years passed. The boys grew. One became a civil engineer. Another started a non-profit. One moved abroad and became a teacher. Two others joined the police force. But they all remained close to home… and close to Mama Gloria.
In December 2024, on her 62nd birthday, they gathered in her small compound — and surprised her with a key.
A brand-new house. Bought and built by all five of them.
“We know you never had much,” Segun said, holding her trembling hands. “But you gave us everything. You gave us a home when we were forgotten. And now, it’s our turn.”
Gloria couldn’t speak. The woman who once cried herself to sleep wondering if she’d ever be called “Mama” now sat surrounded by five grown men calling her “The greatest mother in the world.”
She didn’t just adopt five boys.
She raised five kings.
©Rosyworld CRN
