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While some people who receive gifts are happy for the rest of their lives, others accept gifts and end up with misery. That was the case of a 30-year-old woman who got paralyzed after receiving a funeral cloth as gift from her former sister-in-law. The tiger nut seller, Abena Amakyewa, resident of Buabai, in the Asokore Mampong municipality of the Ashanti Region, is thanking her stars that she is still alive �because she ought to have died as the cloth was alleged to have been used for �sakawa� rituals�. Abena spent three weeks at the Boakye Dankwa Hospital in Kumasi for treatment of her ailment but had to be transferred to a shrine at Kakuma at Techiman in the Brong-Ahafo Region. Sakawa The cloth was allegedly used for �sakawa� by one Nana Ama, her former sister-in-law who has now disappeared after being exposed. Narrating the incident to The Spectator, Abena�s mother, Madam Angelina Acquah, said it all happened about two months ago, when a family member, Arhin, died and the funeral was to be held on May 8, 2014. She said Nana Ama, who had married her deceased son, Kwabena Ebo, offered a black and white funeral cloth as a gift to Abena to wear at the funeral. Abena, she said collected the cloth but was not much enthused about it and, therefore, hanged them on a drying line. According to Angelina, when she returned home, she saw the cloth on the line and admired it, thus Abena asked her to take it as it was a gift from Nana Ama. Sickness She said the following day, Abena went to the market and on her way home, she hit her toe against a stone and that was the beginning of her woes � her left leg began to swell. It affected her waist so she could not walk. When her condition started deteriorating, she said, she consulted some spiritualists and was told the cloth was the cause as it had been used for �sakawa� rituals. She said she confronted Nana Ama over the issue but she mentioned on Mame Afia, a friend, who came for the cloth and if anything, that friend should be contacted. Madam Angelina said she rushed Abena to the Boakye Dankwa Hospital and went to threaten Nana Ama that she would be held responsible for any mishap that should befall her daughter. She said three weeks afterwards, Nana Ama and her new husband, Kojo Konkonfi, went for Amakyewa from the hospital, and took her to a fetish priest at Tikron, near Ejisu. At the shrine, she said, the fetish priest requested for the cloth, performed some rituals and set fire to it at a refuse dump to set Abena free but her condition worsened afterwards. To compound issues, she said Nana Ama and her husband, a taxi driver, left Buabai to an unknown place. In mid-June, Angelina said, she took Abena to another shrine at Kakuma, at Techiman, and said �I am hopeful that she will be healed�. In a telephone conversation, Abena told The Spectator that she bore no grudge against Nana Ama and that the whole scenario had really shocked her. As at the time of filing this report, Abena was still at the shrine at Kakuma receiving treatment.