Knowing that you were a mistake is not easy to take in. Listening and obeying is very important. My mother got pregnant while she was still a teenager and life for her was not easy. So she had to take me to my father’s grandmother while she had to go and finish school and fix her life.

Growing up with her was a dream because I got to learn everything about life, respect, honesty and house chores, etc. As time went by my mother could afford some things and wanted to take me back and that’s when my life started changing. I was introduced to the city, a place called Chesterville, filled with many people from different races, a distinct township in the warmest place to be, Durban.

At that time, my mother was trying to make up for the time she missed in my life. She would take me to school, taking me for shopping, giving me money; she was literally giving me everything, she was pampering me. She then got an opportunity to work in Johannesburg. She had to leave me and she would only come back during Christmas holidays. I was left behind with her mother and my older sister, from another father.

My mother came back from Johannesburg as a corpse. I was so heartbroken it took me nearly six months to accept that she had passed away. That’s when things got tense. My grandmother had to take over everything, the school fees, transport, money and everything that was needed from school. As time went by she couldn’t afford my sister, so she had to go back to her father and that’s where the war started between my grandmother and my father.

My father took my grandmother to court and opened a case. That made me feel angry and afraid for my life, I would have to choose between my grandmother and father, wanting custody but my grandmother won the case. My grandmother then launched a case about my father’s care and lack of support for me. The process went by until every month I received R500 from my father’s side. Grandmother started allowing me to visit my father during the holidays.

But my stepmother did not like the idea of me being around. She pretended to be friendly when my father was around but when he was not around she wouldn’t care or even talk with me. But that was not an issue to me because I only came for my father. When it was time for me to go back home, my stepmother told my father that I didn’t have to go back, and I should stay with them permanently.

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