Patrick Sawyer's widow responds to the open letter sent to her.."I am deeply sorry"

Hello my dear sister. Are you the same Peace Ben Williams that wrote me an open letter stating the magnitude of Patrick’s actions on Nigeria?

If so, I want to thank you for your letter. I took the time to read it, and it really opened my eyes. You see, my dear, Patrick and I have been separated (not yet divorced) for the past one year and seven months. He left me when I was seven months pregnant with our third child. We already had a 3-year-old, and a 4-year-old together, with a third on the way.

He left us all and started a new family in Liberia. I was left by myself to now raise three children alone, one of which (my 3-year-old at the time) was diagnosed with autism. That in itself was a challenge (and still is). Patrick left us, and he never turned back. We only communicated occasionally regarding our children.

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I was under so much emotional stress during my labor that I almost lost my last child, Bella. Thank God she is now a healthy 18 months old girl. Patrick and I now have a 6yr old, a 5 yr old, and an 18 months old together (all girls). 

He and his mistress have a 2-year-old daughter together in Liberia. They lived together in the house that he and I built together. Can you believe the idiot named the child he had with his mistress after me?

The man was deeply confused and troubled. So, my dear, my letter I wrote was not to defend my husband (the man that abandoned me with two small children while I was pregnant for the third). 

My letter was to shine light on the beyond broken healthcare system and bad governance of Liberia under President Sirleaf and previous presidents. Ebola didn’t start with Patrick in Liberia, as we both know. 

Ebola was in Liberia from a traveler from Guinea since February of this year. The government knew about it and did nothing. Many Liberians, including myself, called out to the government then to close the borders. They didn’t do so until one of their own, Patrick, died in July.

Many people died before Patrick and their lives were just as important. That is my frustration. Ebola didn’t have to go to Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country, had the Liberian government taken drastic actions sooner.

 I too, have family members and friends in Nigeria, and now they are at risk because of Patrick’s actions. In spite of my anger and disappointment with him, I don’t believe that he did this with evil intent (I could be wrong). I believe his actions was that of a desperate man. And sad for everyone involved, Nigeria was closer than the U.S. This is just my take on what he could have been thinking (of course, I could be wrong).

My regret is that I was so caught up in my own pain and frustration, that I neglected to see the pain of the innocent people both in Liberia and Nigeria who are affected by Patrick’s actions. For that, I am deeply sorry. 

The last thing I wanted to do was to cause them pain. It is a pain I know. It is a pain I don’t want them to have. The interesting thing is, I d

idn’t even know Patrick was in Nigeria until my sister living in Boston (USA) told me the day before he died.

Patrick barely talked with me. He was too busy being a Liberian government big shot. Power, if not used to glorify God, can bring down a nation. It brought down my family. I finally had a lawyer in Liberia serve Patrick with divorce papers exactly a week before he died. He never signed it. 

Now I’m left as his widow taking the heat while his mistress sits in peace. I just read your open letter this morning.