A Random Meeting Changed My Life's Path

Going back to when I was fifteen I was on my way to Nairobi for summer break. In the waiting room at the airport were two English women and five children. We talked, the layover was long. At one point I asked if they were together. One said oh no, they were poly, they had the same husband.

I know I must have come across as naïve and prejudiced. But they didn't mind, passing the baby from one set of arms to the other and verbally correcting the other children. They told me they always wanted a big family, and two wives together could have many more children. They weren't religious, they were childhood friends. And they were sure to let me know that multiple wives was the norm, not the exception. What did I think lovers were, mistresses, girlfriends, divorced wives, multiple wives gave the man what he always desired.

This thought stayed with me and I saw all marriages through that lens. I was twenty five, a practicing nurse, living on my own, I met an ordinary girl at the hospital and we became friends. We talked about multiple wives and she commented that it probably worked really well, every wife needs another set of hands in the kitchen. I said to her 'you and me, would you be a wife together with me?'

We set out to find a husband. We got several answers on the internet, but we wanted a man in the prime of his reproductive years, we wanted lots of babies. Tom from South Africa answered us, 34 lived in the bush, had a large house and he felt that out in the bush two wives would do better than one. A year later we met him in person, our biological clocks were on fire, just marry us and get us pregnant.

We are true sisters, we gave seven children between us, one is an infant the other mother is pregnant. We make out well in the bush, our little farm is thriving, No one sees us in a bad way, we are Tom's wives, and these are Tom's children. The bush is very forgiving, and two nurses can't be sneezed at.