There’s a single mother who lives in our house. I live with my mom since my dad died, and my mom rented that part of the house to this lady. Her daughter is about seven years old. She wakes up at dawn to clean the house. By 5:30 a.m., she’s ready to leave the house. She comes home later in the evening, with her daughter hanging on her shoulder and carrying her bag in one hand.

One day, my mom asked her, “Where do you keep your daughter while you’re working?” She answered, “After school, her teacher takes her home, and I go for her on my way home. I pay the teacher every month.”

My mom told her, “I’m here doing nothing. She can come home, and I will take good care of her until you come from work.” She dropped to her knees and said thank you. Her eyes welled up.

My mom is very hard to please, so doing that for a tenant shocked me a little. She later told me, “She has been in this house for over a year. I’ve never seen a man here. She does her workload around the house and still leaves very early. Her daughter is very clean, and on Saturdays, you and I can smell what she cooks. This is a woman doing an honest living.”

So I started watching her, but I hardly said a word to her. When I came home from work and her daughter was home, I helped her do her homework while my mom did the rest of the care. She’s always on time. Exactly between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m., she’s home and saying thank you to my mom and me.

Days ago, my mom told me, “Marry her. If you agree to do that and she also agrees to marry you, I will use my pension pay to cater for your wedding. They don’t make them like this any longer. Take your chance.”

I’ve been thinking about this since. Because of that, I can’t even look this woman in the eye. All of a sudden, I’m shy around her. All of a sudden, I feel I owe her daughter protection and more than just helping her with homework. I think my mind is going where my mom is directing it, but the question is, is it a good thing that I didn’t know I should marry her until my mom said it?

What Nobody Tells You About Divorce

Am I being influenced by my mom? Am I all of a sudden thinking I like her because my mom said I should like her? I love my mom so much, and I mostly do what she tells me to do. Is this one of those moments where a son is just obeying his mother, or could this be genuine love?

—Gyamfi 

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