Dear Pastor, I grew up with my mother and grandmother. I did not know my father. My mother used to work hard to take care of us.
There are four of us; I have one sister and two brothers. All my mother's children went to high school; that was her dream for us. My brothers didn't do so well, but my sister and I did very well.
As soon as my brothers were in their teens, they started to chase after women. My mother used to talk to them but they wouldn't obey. One of my brothers got into a fight over a girl and he could have lost his life.
Eventually, the girl left the guy who fought my brother and my brother took her over completely. He was the big man in the town because he took over the man's woman. While my brothers wouldn't listen to our mother, they always listen to our grandmother.
The guys in the district couldn't play around with us, because they were afraid of our brothers. All we had to do was to tell them that so and so was fooling around us and our brothers would go and tell them, 'Look, back off from our sisters.' When I was 16 years old, my eldest brother put on a sweet 16 party for me.
I invited a guy who loved me, and he had to come to my brother and talk to him as if my brother was my father. My brothers watched me all night during the party. They didn't want the guys to touch me, except to dance with me.
When the party was over about 1 a.m., the guys left, and we helped our mother clean up.
I am now 30 years old and I am proud to say that my sister and I are col.