My Journey to Success

I remember being very protective of my mother in those early years because I loved her deeply and she was a very loving mother. However, one time she found it necessary to give me a hiding I still remember, not only the hiding itself but also the reason why. That evening, when I stood at the gate of our house waiting for my father’s return from work, I saw him approaching but to my surprise he was walking on the opposite side of the street rather than on our side. It was getting dark but I could see him walk by our house and never so much cast a single glance in my direction. Puzzled, I followed him and saw how he approached the corner of the block and turned into the side street and then entered the room of a woman whom we knew as an acquaintance. She apparently was expecting him because she opened the door even before he had knocked. I was even more dumbfounded when I saw the door close behind him. I was only a small kid then but I had already picked up enough street wisdom to have some vague idea of what was going on behind that closed door. My father’s behavior made me lose whatever love and respect I had for him. To cheat on my mother was terrible but to have an affair so close to home was a sign of utter disrespect for his family and a terrible embarrassment to all of us. Mortified, I had to share my discovery with my mother and scurried home to tell her where my father was the minute the words were out of my mouth she slapped me so hard that I fell on the floor. As soon as I had picked myself up from the floor, even before I had a chance to dust off myself, my mother had taken off one of her leather slippers and whipped my bottom until it was numb. Even today I remember the sense of betrayal I felt. Without any attempt of hearing my side of the story, she punished me severely when I was actually trying to help her. I later found out that she had known about this woman for quite a while. By bringing so abruptly such humiliating and embarrassing facts into the open I made her lose her self-control. She took the easy way out by settling the matter not with the real culprit but by whipping me, an easy target and close at hand. Neighbors had been telling her about the woman all along and wanted my mother to confront her and my father but my mother felt it below her dignity to create a scene at home or in the streets.