Mom sold her body to feed us

Dear Pastor,

I am 21. When I was 12, my sister and I suspected that our mother was working at nights on the streets. She was never home. By the time I was 15, I had sex with three different guys. I lost my virginity when I was 15. The guy was 19 and he used to give me anything I asked him for.

I told my sister that I had sex with the guy and she did not like it, because she told me that she had sex with the same guy. I asked the guy about it and he admitted that he had sex with her.

We broke up. My mother did not know what was going on between my sister and myself. My sister used to bring home plenty of money from her boyfriend. He was in business and was married.

Any man who wanted me, I used to tell my sister and she would tell me whether I should go with them. By the time I was 16 and a half, I had slept with six guys.

When my mother was 45, we had a birthday party for her. She was very surprised. She did not even ask us where we got the money.

One day my mother and my sister had a fuss, and my sister disgraced her in the presence of one of our neighbours by calling her a whore.

My mother told my sister that she hoped that she would never have to whore out herself as she did to support her.

She also told her that she was very ungrateful. None of us know our fathers. I told my sister that she was wrong to call my mother a whore. We should have kept that to ourselves.

Although my mother practised prostitution, she has never brought any of her clients to the house. But we knew that that was what she did for a living. It has helped her to buy a house.

She is now running a bar, and she told us that those days are done. I have a boyfriend and he loves me, but sometimes when things are hard, I am tempted to go with other men. My sister is not a saint, either.

F.

Dear F.,

First of all, let me say that your sister was so wrong in cursing her mother. Your mother has tried to support the family. Although I cannot endorse what she did, at least she put her money to good use.

Sometime ago, a young woman told me that she discovered that her mother was a prostitute but she never asked her, neither did she give her mother the impression that she knew the type of work that she was doing.

But one evening, this young woman was in the New Kingston area and saw her mother 'hustling'. The mother spotted her and was so ashamed of herself.

I shall never forget a gentleman, who lived in a certain area in the city, swearing to me that he would kill a certain banker who got a considerable amount of money from him by prostituting herself after banking hours.

One day she was trying to get him to purchase a car for her. He told her no and the relationship went downhill; and he swore that he was going to take her life.

She had used him and collected his money, and she acted like a prostitute, after work, when the banks were closed.

So, although I can't sanction what your mother did, at least she put her money to good use and was able to purchase a house.

Your sister should show some respect to her mother, and neither of you should allow yourself to follow in your mother's footsteps by selling your body.

Pastor