What does your name mean? Maybe not many people know the meaning of their names, only a privileged few, like me, do.

Her late parents might not have known or they had their own reasons why they christened her Bugingo but it was far more than they had imagined.

The last thing a teenage girl expects to befall her life is sickness. And not just any other sickness but something as gross as cancer.  Yet this is Karen Bugingo’s story.

A morning discomfort in her hip tips off a journey that lasts more than two years exiling her excitement of continuing to form 6 with her friends and having to wait for some more time as she gets treatment.

One thing about sickness, you never know how sick you are until you get the check-up done and find out you were only surviving on God’s grace. That was Karen’s life. From a ‘slight’ dislocation of the hip to an eaten spine to cancer.

Karen finds herself having to move from Kigali to Nairobi to Bangalore and back in a small span of time yet growing weaker every other day. First, she fails to support herself and she has to get a crutch, then a wheel chair. In the process she has to forego her hair. With the passing of time, she can no longer make herself breakfast, she has to be served. Before long, she cannot feed herself. Walls come crumbling down when she, in the end, has to feed on formula through a tube.

Karen’s story brings one to the attention of God’s grace upon our lives. As you turn page after page you cannot fail but realize that our ability as human beings is limited as regards protecting and preserving life.

The book is a restoration of hope. Of how things change when you refuse to give up. Of how important it is to have someone by your side willing to take care of you. Karen had Aunt Eva, Grandmother and Calvin. They meant the world to her at a time when she struggled dearly for her life.

Together, they re-wrote the story of her destiny and redirected it to a whole new beginning.

One thing for certain is that we should take off time to be grateful for life because we do not know how things are working.

If your hope is waning and you feel like you cannot take it anymore, this book will help you stop and reflect. Things could be working for you more than you thought.

MY NAME IS LIFE was released in 2018 published by Imagine We, Rwanda. It is available for sale at Turn The Page Africa. You can buy a copy here.