If you haven’t read the first part of this story, here’s the link. Kindly read it before starting this one.

I had to come together with my other siblings to resolve the issues. Finally, we agreed that we would look for a gentleman to help him around the house. We also agreed to increase his monthly allowance and most often buy food items and send them to him instead of always giving him money. Once that was agreed, we all went to the house and had a meeting with him. He accepted to live with someone as far as we were not the people going to impose that person on him. We accepted the deal. I said, “It even makes the job easier.” 

We gave him his foodstuff and his money. We told him about the increment. He smiled and said, “When you do that for your father then God will look down upon you and bless you more. Even the soul of your mother will be happy. It’s not easy to live alone ooo. It’s not easy ooo.” We were happy as we departed from his presence. It didn’t take more than a week for him to call us and inform us that he had gotten someone to live with. It was my brother who went home to see the guy and spoke to him about all the things we were expecting him to do to help our father.  Peace was restored. He wasn’t calling as often. We were the ones calling to check up on him often.

And then one day he called my husband. I was with him so he put the phone on a loudspeaker. My father said, “I hope she’s not lingering around there with you?” My husband responded, “No she’s not. She’s somewhere out there cooking or eating.” He said, “That’s very fine. She doesn’t have to know what we are going to discuss. I need some small assistance. My chest pains came again and I went to the hospital. I’ve spent everything I had on me. If you can give me something small, I will be happy.”

I was restless in my seat. I wanted to shout but my husband gave me a wink and placed his index finger on his lips. I didn’t talk. He told my dad, “The way you always complain about your chest, it’s better you come for a check-up. Something concrete has to be done on it. When you finish your drug and it’s still there, you’ll need to come to my place for a checkup.” He answered, “I’m only praying that it wouldn’t come again because I suffer when it comes. My husband agreed to send him something before he cut the call. 

I told him, “No you’re not going to send him anything. In fact, you’re going to block his line. He can’t reach you with demands if he can’t call you.” Right there, I made sure he has blocked my father’s line. My dad isn’t someone who will go on Whatsapp but I made sure he blocked him there too. All was quiet until he called me a week later. He asked about my husband and I said, “Oh he has travelled ooo. He had an emergency so he had to travel outside Ghana.” He asked me, “So when is he coming?” I told him, “That I won’t know until he calls to tell me.” He asked again, “He didn’t leave anything in your care for me?” I answered, “No he didn’t. Did you have any conversation with him concerning that?” He answered softly, “Don’t worry. It’s alright.”

He turned his attention to my other siblings requesting money from them. They sent him something when they had it but I guess it wasn’t enough so he kept calling to ask if my husband had come. I called my brother and told him, “I suspect there’s something my dad uses his money for that we don’t know. At his age, he shouldn’t be broke the way he makes it look like.” He told me he was going to investigate and he did. 

He got all the information he needed from the boy living with him. My dad has a woman who comes around often with her two children. Sometimes she spends the night with him and other times too dad goes away and doesn’t come back until the following day.

My brother did all the work involve until one day he met the woman face-to-face in the house. He met her in the house with her two kids. The kids were around the ages of ten and fifteen. When my dad saw my brother in the house he asked him, “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you call before coming?” My brother doesn’t have the patience we have. He went ballistic. “So that’s what you’ve been doing with your money right? You’re taking care of a woman and her kids while we are out there suffering to get you what you’ll eat? If you want to marry again, that’s ok but we have to be aware. You can’t bring anyone on you and expect us to bear the cost.”

It turned into give-and-take. As I said, my brother isn’t the patience type. He went hyper when he could have been a little bit patient. My dad called me complaining. I calmed him down but he was so angry he didn’t want to listen to me. He screamed, “I won’t even take anything from him again. That small amount he gives me he thinks he’s doing something. Can’t I help another person because he gives me money? Tell him, I won’t collect anything from him again.” 

So instead of money, we sent him a lot of foodstuffs and reduce his monthly allowance. He fought with us. He told us we can’t dictate what he should do with his money. It looked like we couldn’t do anything to help him so we decided to leave him alone. My brother withdrew his assistance but I added up so my dad would not feel the reduction. 

My husband was at work when an unknown number called him. He picked up and the voice said, “Eiii, you’re back? And you won’t call to tell me that you’re back?” My husband said he was lost so he asked him, “Where did I go and who are you looking for?” The voice said, “You mean you didn’t travel? So my daughter lied to me?” 

READ ALSO: My Daughter Led Me To A Father She Wants But The Man’s Mother Said NO!

That was when he got to know that it was my dad calling with another line. By the time he could bring himself to salvage the situation, my dad had already formed his opinion that it was a trick we played on him. I called him that day and he didn’t pick up my calls. My sister called and he picked up. He complained bitterly about me and my husband; “Do you know what I went through for you guys? Do you know the sacrifices I have to make? Now you’re adults so you think you can withhold favours from me? What the elders said was true. If I bought cows with my money, I would have been rich by now but see.”

She said my father cried on the phone while making incantations about how he suffered for us.

Currently, he doesn’t talk to me and my brother. When I call his phone he doesn’t pick up. He doesn’t call my husband again. At the end of each month, we send his allowance to him through our sister. He takes it without asking where it’s coming from. My brother has given up on him so I’m the only one who keeps trying. I don’t mind that he doesn’t talk to me. As far as I know, he’s ok and our contribution gets to him, I’m ok. God knows we are doing our best and he knows we didn’t let our dad go hungry. It’s him who chose not to talk to us

—Jemila

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