Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder which causes progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. The condition is caused by the absence of a protein that helps keep muscle cells intact called dystrophine.
Symptoms usually present between ages 3-5. According to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the condition primarily affects boys and has a prevalence of approximately 1 in 3,500 males worldwide.
“It was difficult, but I thank God because my son was made for me. He was flexible to how I was growing and gave me no trouble,” Bennett said. “He was the perfect child and allowed me to be me. No matter what happened to me, I knew my son loved me.”
“My strength came from God – one hundred percent. I understood from a young age that God is the source of life, and when my church told me that I couldn’t get baptized because I was pregnant out of wedlock, that hurt a lot. I wanted to show the world that I wanted to serve God, but here was someone else telling me that I wasn’t good enough. So, I had a complicated relationship with God because I loved Him, but the church made me feel like He didn’t love me back.” – Cola Bennett
While her strength came from God, her will to live came from her son. He reassured Bennett that there was at least one person on this earth who truly loved her.
Two years later, Bennett was raped a third time.
At this point, Bennett had become numb. She suppressed her pain. She wanted love but kept finding herself taken advantage of. By the time she was 21, she had been raped a total of four times.
“People ask me how I ‘allowed’ it to happen four times. And I tell them that every single time it happened, it happened in a different way. So it would happen one way and I would say, ‘OK, I got this. I’ll never let this situation happen again.’ And then it would hit me from another blind spot that I didn’t protect myself from. Every time I strengthened one side of the wall, another wall would get plummeted through.”
– Cola Bennett
Meanwhile, Bennett continued to care for her son as best she could.
“The day we found out that he had congestive heart failure and only had five percent of his heart function left, I told God that if He took my son, I would be going, too,” she said. “My whole life was about my son, so it didn’t make sense to me to keep on living.”
The doctors did not expect Kayshaun to last the weekend. Bennett poured herself out to God and delved into scripture, determined to discover God for herself.
Bennett also ended an engagement, impressed that her fiancé was not the person God had in mind for her. She spent her days creating lasting memories with her son and believed God would heal him.
“Every time the doctors said he wouldn’t live past the weekend, he always surpassed it,” she said.
Six months later, Kayshaun succumbed to his illness and died in his mother’s arms. He was eight.
“I didn’t understand what God was doing, but it taught me a lot about His character. As much as my son was only eight when he passed, he fulfilled his purpose, which was to save me and to bring me back to God,” she said.
Despite all of the challenges, Bennett describes her current relationship with her parents as good, and she was eventually baptized at the same church that once tuned her away.
She shares the details of her remarkable story in her autobiography C.O.L.A – Casualty of Love’s Apologies. It has taken her seven years to complete her book, which is now available for order on her website.,
In addition to being an author, Bennett also owns a natural skincare company with her sister called U.P. Beauty – UP stands for Unforgivingly Pur.
To connect with Cola Bennett, find her on the following social handles:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MisscolaBABI
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livingcola/
Website: https://www.livingcola.com/
Watch her interview with Delafe` Testimonies:
Vimbai E. is a content marketer, ghostwriter, and the founder of The Weight She Carries. With hundreds of articles and stories publishing online, in print and for broadcast, her love of language and storytelling shines through every piece of writing that bears her name.