“I heard your mother was very sick, I’m sorry, no child should have to witness that,” said grandma, looking at my mother who was busy washing dishes like a good-wife-to-be should.
“Yes, she is, I pray for her recovery every day,” she replied.
“Would you do anything for her get better? Literally anything?” asked grandma.
“I would go to hell and back for her in a heartbeat,” my mother replied.
“That settles it then, I will give you R5000 for her medication and another R5000 for you to leave my son alone. You are not worthy of him!” said grandma.
My mother just stood there with her eyes wide-opened and mouth dropping: she could not believe what she had just heard. R10 000 was a lot of money, she could buy medication for her mother, take her cousins to school and also fix the roof, which had holes. It was a tough decision to make. She loved my father deeply and my grandmother even more. Choosing between them was impossible. Grandma did not even give her time to think about it, she wrote the cheque right there and then.
“Take it. You need it more than I do!” said grandma, staring at my mother who had tears pouring down her cheeks. What my grandmother did was cruel on so many levels, she tore my mother’s heart into pieces just when everything in her life was falling into place.
“I’m sorry, I can’t take your money, I truly love your son and I can understand if you don’t want me to be part of your family. I will leave and you will never see me again. Tell him I’ll always love him,” said my mother, whose facial expression resembled that of a person who had just lost everything she lived for. She ran straight to the front door and didn’t even give my grandmother a chance to reply.
“Mother, what you have done?” my father said, with fury in his eyes.
Before grandma could reply, my grandfather said, “She chose money over you, son! What did I tell you? She was after it from the beginning!”
“She would never do that!” my father shouted, knocking his feast on the table. The woman I love would never change on me for some change!”
“No, John, we were wrong,” said grandma, “she did not take the money, in fact she chose to deny the money that would save her mother’s life and change her life forever. Perhaps we were wrong, she really loves our son.”
Her old soul finally grew some conscience; she was now convinced that my mother was the right woman for my father. She looked at him and said, “Go get your woman, son!”
***
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