I was quite young when my mum left us. I didn’t know her very well, but I can remember times when my dad would beat her. He would beat her and throw her belongings out of the house. One incident I remember vividly was when he told my older sister to buy some kerosene. He needed it to burn my mum’s clothes. Thank God the neighbours intervened and stopped him.
When she finally left, my dad fed us with stories of how unfaithful she had been. He made us promise him we would not look for her when we grew up and did well for ourselves. In her absence, he tried to remarry, but the women he dated made him beat us with chains. He used different objects on us, no matter how dangerous.
The mistreatment and lies affected me so much that I hated my mum. I even hated my elder sister, who had left home and gotten married. He never stopped telling us horror stories about both of them. But as I grew older, I got to learn the truth about the actual situation of things. For one, Mum always came around and gave us food and other necessities because Dad couldn’t provide for us. It became so bad that I stopped going to school for two years.
Reconnecting with my Sister
This year, just before the lockdown, I left my father against his wish. I ran to my married sister who was pregnant at the time. Staying with her proved all of Dad’s tales to be false. I apologised to my sister for despising her previously. Now, I see that she is not as bad as our dad painted her to be.
I am still in contact with my dad and mum, and I hope that someday they will reconcile for our sake. I’ve begun school again, which makes me happy even though it’s at a late age. I look forward to a better future where my family will be together again.