So it turns out I don’t really remember my father at all. I only know from my mother’s tales that everything was perfectly pleasant before I arrived. My father supported her and helped her, but he stayed with us for less than a year. As soon as my mother gave birth to me, my father simply vanished. Back then, there were no mobile phones, so my mother had no way to find him. Even at his workplace, no one knew where he had gone. That was a bitter and difficult time for her.
She managed to find a job, though. With nobody around to mind me, my mother took me everywhere she went. I remember so vividly the chill that seemed to seep through the room while she worked. I was often unwell because of the cold. Later, I began attending nursery, and in the meantime, my mother secured another post, this time as a cleaner.
We barely had enough money for anything, but I watched her toil endlessly, doing everything she could for me. After my father’s sudden act, she chose to live her life for my sake. I finished primary school and university. I found a job and now I help my mother as much as I can. I do everything possible to make her feel less anxious. Throughout all these years, there was never a word from my father. Not once did he ever ask about my life.
Then, one afternoon, there came a knocking at the front door. My mother went to open it, and I heard the murmur of a man’s voice. I stepped out and saw an old man with a walking stick. My mother turned to me and said, ‘That’s your father.’
He was crying, pleading for forgiveness. Said he’d been young and foolish, frightened by responsibility. All those years, my father had stayed in the same city, living with another family and a daughter a touch younger than me. But later, he began to drink, and his second wife sent him away. Now, in his old age, nobody wants him. His daughter refused him entry to her home. His last hope is my mother and me, and I am utterly unsure what to do.
On one hand, hes my fatherIve waited for him for so long. On the other, he left us and only turned up when he was desperate for help. Most of all, I feel for my mother; I dont want her troubled again. My mother poured every ounce of energy and health into learning how to live alone, and now just as shes learned, he reappears. I told him I needed some time to think. My mother fell silent and simply said, ‘This should be your decision.’
